Not Broken, Just Bent
by Finclaw
Summary: When Quinn Fabray starts to visit Santana every weekend in NYC, Rachel Berry's curiosity goes crazy. Quinn never use to visit Rachel, and that makes her a little jealous, and maybe something else she can't quite place yet. Takes place after "I do" with some plot changes. Faberry and Quinntana both appear in this fic. Enjoy!
1. Chapter 1

Somebody was knocking at the door of the apartment, which was odd because she wasn't expecting anybody. Kurt was away in his room working on something for Vogue and Santana didn't have friends in New York City yet. But nonetheless Rachel opened the door and there was the blonde standing in her doorway. Quinn Fabray didn't even stop to say hi, she just walked right past Rachel.

"Uh, hi Quinn," Rachel offered.

"Oh. Hi," Quinn stopped for a brief second, but then kept walking.

"What are you doing at my apartment?" She asked. Not that she didn't want to see Quinn, it's  
just that she was suppose to be at Yale. Very rarely did she ever stop to make visits. Very rarely.

"It's not just your apartment. Santana lives here too."

"Oh..." Rachel never thought about that. Still, for Quinn to come while she did not have a break was odd. As far as she knew, they didn't hang out that much before when Santana was in college. Quinn just kept walking into Santana's room and ended the conversation. Rachel was still puzzled so she decided to bother Kurt.

"Kurt," she said at his door.

"I'm busy!" She heard him yell.

"It's important!" Rachel insisted. She heard Kurt get up and then saw his face at the door. She knew he must be hard at work, he didn't even do his hair today.

"What is it?"

"Quinn's here!"

"So?" Kurt didn't see why this was important.  
"Why is she here?"  
"Do you not want her here?" He asked.  
"No! I don't care! But she never use to come all the way from Yale to New York City! Why is she here, Kurt!?" Rachel explained.  
"I don't know, she's probably going to come around to see Santana," Kurt shrugged.  
"Since when do her and Santana visit all the time?" Rachel asked.  
"Probably since they slept together," Kurt said with a shrug.  
Rachel's jaw dropped, "They're not sleeping together!"  
Kurt smirked, "How do you know?" He was obviously joking, but Rachel was known to take everything seriously.  
"Because they would tell me!"  
"Why would they tell you?" Kurt asked.  
"Because Quinn and I are friends!"  
"When's the last time you had a conversation with Quinn?"  
Rachel thought for a moment. It was true, ever since they graduated she never really talked to Quinn unless they both ended up in Lima at the same time. "Well...Santana and I are friends!"  
"Please, you're barely civil roommates," Kurt rolled his eyes.  
"We are friends, Kurt! And so are Quinn and I! They would tell me if they were sleeping together!" Rachel whined.  
"I'm sure they would. Why don't you go ask them about it and let me get back to my project," Kurt knew this would keep Rachel busy for hours. It killed her to not know something. Even though Kurt really doubted that Quinn would ever sleep with her best friend, it was still a way to keep Rachel from bothering him and keep him entertained as he watched Rachel try to figure it out. Don't get him wrong, he loved living with his best friend, but when she wasn't in class - she often got bored. And that's when bored diva Rachel came out. So Kurt watched Rachel go deep into thought, developing theories, and start walking towards their door.

***

"I brought cookies!" Rachel stood at Santana's door. But before she or Quinn could answer, she whipped open the door. "I KNEW..." She expected to see Quinn laid out across the bed naked, and Santana stripping seductively while porn music played in the background. But instead, they were both laying on the bed (clothed) looking at something on Santana's laptop. "Oh." She said, awkwardly.

They both just stared at her, then Santana said, "What are you doing, freak?"  
"I brought you cookies!" Rachel tried to cover up.  
"Why did you find it necessary to almost rip my door off?"  
"Uh, well, I'm sorry! But I thought you might be doing... something else," Rachel said the last part a bit uncomfortably.  
Quinn and Santana both looked at eachother then started laughing, "Don't worry, Berry," Santana said through laughs, "I'm not trying to steal your girlfriend."  
"Quinn and I have no romantic relationship whatsoever, thank you very much," Rachel tried to explain to her.  
"Then why do you care so badly about what we do behind closed doors?" Santana raised her eyebrow.  
"I don't care! I just like to know who is having sex in my apartment," Rachel told her, sounding a bit defensive.  
"It's not your just your apartment, Rachel. I'm allowed to have sex in here without you knowing. Even if I was having lady sex with Quinn, it's not your business. You don't always need to be in everybody's business!" Santana told her.  
"So you are having sex with Quinn?" Rachel asked.  
"It's none of your business, Berry! Now leave!" Santana started to yell and Rachel knew that was her que to leave.

"Well, I'm sorry. But I did bring you cookies. I won't bother you again," and with that Rachel left the room, feeling a bit defeated and slightly disappointed. She was hoping she'd find some kind of gossip that would remind her slightly as high school. Sometimes she missed the petty high school drama. She missed her friends, too and now it felt like Quinn didn't even care about her. She also felt like something else was bothering her, but she couldn't quite place it. She decided to just retire to her bedroom and read a book about old musical theatre to keep her mind occupied for the time being.

Back in Santana's room, Quinn and her were still looking at her laptop and discussing the Rachel encounter.

"How does she know we slept together?" Quinn asked, worriedly.

"She probably doesn't. She just jumps to conclusions. Besides, even if she does, why do you care?" Santana questioned.

"I don't care, I'm just curious."

"Don't want your girlfriend to know you're cheating on her?" Santana smirked.

Quinn had come accustomed to Santana making jokes about her and Rachel dating, so she just ignored it. "The last thing I want is for her to go and telling everybody back in Lima, I guess."

"This isn't high school anymore, we're allowed to have sex lives now. Most adults do."

"Most adults don't sleep with their best friend," Quinn countered.

"You'd be surprised..." Santana said.

"Well, whatever. It was just a 2 time thing. I don't want people to think I'm a lesbian."

"Relax, chica," Santana said, "Nobody's going to think you're a raging lesbian unless you go out and get a dyk spike now and start wearing flannels." Quinn laughed and Santana changed the subject to the disgusting sweater on her computer, which she pointed out would be something Rachel would wear.

****

The weeks went by and every weekend Quinn would end up in New York City cooked up in Santana's room. The more times Quinn walked her blonde hair into the apartment, the closer Rachel's frustration got to exploding. She knew there was something was going on with them. No matter how close of friends, they did not travel a couple hours every weekend. Rachel hated to not be in the inside circle, especially when it was going on inside her own apartment!

Kurt's door was open for once, so Rachel walked in and plopped herself on the bed with a deep sigh.

"Can I help you, Ms. Berry?" Kurt asked, clearly use to the overdramatics of Rachel.

Rachel sat up, "Do you know how many times Quinn has walked through that door?"

"Uhm.." Kurt thought before Rachel jumped in.

"16 times. That's 16 weeks she's came to visit Santana and barely say a word to either of us! Tell me nothing is going on between them?" Rachel told him.

"Nothing is going on," Kurt continued to his Vogue magazine.

"You're the one that said from the beginning you thought they were sleeping together!"

"I was kidding, Rachel! They're just close friends."

"Finn doesn't come to visit me every weekend!"

Kurt raised his eyebrow, "You two are a little closer than friends."

"No we're not!"

"Right, friends that have Skype sex every night?" Kurt pressured.

"How do you know.." Rachel thought out loud, then shook her head, "And even then he doesn't come to visit me all the time!"

"It's funny that somebody's friendship is better than somebody's relationship," Kurt said.

Rachel ignored Kurt's comment, her and Finn weren't even dating. Sometimes, she just got lonely. "Something is going on!" She told Kurt, "And I'm going to figure it out! Maybe Santana's going through a drug addiction and Quinn is here to help her through it," Rachel thought out loud, "Or maybe Santana's pregnant and Quinn is here for support, or maybe Quinn isn't doing well in school and is on the verge of failing out and Santana is helping her!"

"Or maybe," Kurt cut in, "She's just visiting her best friend."

"Something is going on, Kurt. And I'm going to be the one to figure it out," Rachel said, now standing up with her arms folded across her chest.

"You go girl," Kurt said dully, " What are you going to do once you figure it out? Write to the New York Times?"

"No! I'll just be self satisfied that I figured it out."

"Rachel, why do you care so much? Why does it matter?"

"Because it's something I don't know. You know I don't like it when I don't know something."

"Right, well, good luck with that. But I doubt Santana is going to let you investigate her for very long before you receive a black eye.

"  
"If she has nothing to hide, she shouldn't care," Rachel said.

"She'll care, because you're being ridiculous."

"I'm not being ridiculous! It's perfectly reasonable for me to be curious about what's going on in my own apartment!" And with that, Rachel left Kurt to his room, who just continued to read Vogue.  
**  
*****

The next week Rachel kept a careful eye on Santana. Whether it meant constantly checking her eyes for pupil dilation, or 'accidently' bumping into her to check for a baby bump. She even peaked into the bathroom a few times to check her naked body. But Rachel still came up with nothing, except Santana growing more annoyed with her.

Friday morning rolled around and Santana and Rachel were both at the table. Santana was eating a bowl of Lucky Charms and Rachel was eating an apple, while staring at Santana.

"Rachel, you're staring at me again."

"Sorry," Rachel said sheepishly.

"Freak," Santana muttered and went back to reading the back of the cereal box.

"Is Quinn coming over for the weekend?" Rachel asked.

"Why do you care?" Santana asked.

"I don't! Just curious!" Rachel said, defensively. Why did everybody think she cared, she didn't care. Why wasn't she allowed to be curious?

"Yes, she is. In fact, she's going to be here a lot during the summer," Rachel made a mental note of the date, it was early May now, which meant colleges would be letting out for the summer soon.

"But why?" Rachel asked.

"Do you have a problem with it, diva?" Santana asked.

"No! But doesn't Quinn have her own family that might miss her?"

"Are we talking about the same Quinn Fabray? Everybody knew she wanted to get out of Lima the second she got a chance."

Rachel sighed, "I guess you're right." Santana got up to put her bowl in the sink, and Rachel followed. She 'accidently' bumped into her hand 'accidentally' brushed up against her stomach.

"What the fuck are you doing freak?" Santana asked.

"Sorry! A bit clumsy this morning!" Rachel said, apologetically.

"You've been driving me more loco than usual lately. What the hell is up with you?" Santana asked and Rachel got a bit scared. Santana was speaking in spanish, which usually meant she was angry.

"What do you mean?" She tried to plead innocently.

"Please, don't play that game with me, punta. You've been constantly staring at me, always asking me where I'm going, and I think that's about the 50th time this week you bumped into me!" Santana told her.

"Santana," Rachel shook her head, "You're being ridiculous and making things up. Why is that? Is there something you're hiding?" Rachel tried to turn the table.

"No! You're the one being weird! Now stop coming up with theories in your head, leave Quinn and I alone, and go back to being a hopeless theatre major."

"I didn't say anything about Quinn!" Rachel rejected.

"We both know that's what this is about. I don't know what problem you have with her, but she's my friend, Rachel. She can come here anytime she wants."

"She never visited you in college," Rachel mumbled.

"I will admit she has been spending a lot of time around me, but people do start to miss their old life. And let's be real, I'm pretty hard to not miss," Santana said cockily.

"So you admit its weird?"

"Maybe a bit out if the ordinary, but no reason to stalk me!"

Rachel decided that bothering Santana was going to get her nowhere but maybe the emergency room, so she decided it was better to leave her alone. She could try to talk to Quinn again, they were friends..sort of. They hadn't talked since high school, but if they were true friends time shouldn't affect the value of their friendship, right? Or maybe Kurt was right and she was just making up a bunch of stuff in her head out of boredom. But whatever the matter was, talking to Quinn was definitely the next step.


	2. Chapter 2

_Thanks for the reviews and follows so far. It's updated fast I know - I already have a big portion of this written, it's just editing and deciding where I want to end and start chapters. I hopefully have a plan that will end it happily for everybody and stay true to character actions. And also I'm sorry that sometimes the POV is jumpy, it's something I do need to work on but I feel like I can't get the entire story in if I don't. Something I'll definitely work on for future chapters. I hope you like it and as the story goes on you can kind of see where it is all coming from._

Rachel liked to be right. She always had. Even when she was little and would be playing her favorite game of pretend with her neighbor, Sidney, who sadly moved away. They would both play a game where they would be Broadway stars. Rachel would make sure the game was accurate as could be. They would put on shows in Rachel's backyard with Rachel being the lead of course, with Sidney being the supporting actress. If Rachel didn't know the correct lyrics to a song, she would stop the whole performance and listen to the song over and over again until she learned the lyrics correctly. It was truly a gift that Rachel had a friend who was so patient with her.

Therefore she couldn't just talk to somebody without having the proper facts. Simply talking to Quinn was out of the question. First she had to thoroughly examining Quinn, which may come across to others as stalking - but those were just the less informed. It was simply research.

Rachel watched as Quinn's VW Bug came cruising onto the street. Rachel spotted the window down with Quinn's hand flinging a cigarette out the window. Rachel silently gasped. Since when did Quinn Fabray, cheer captain, popular blonde, smoke? Rachel couldn't believe it. Something was definitely going on for Quinn to pick up a pack of cancer sticks. This was more than enough evidence. She waited anxiously for Quinn to walk into the apartment to grill her.

The gesture of knocking for Quinn was long gone, now she just walked in. Usually, she'd completely ignore Rachel if she was around, she might say a simple hello to Kurt but nothing more. But Rachel wasn't going to let Quinn slip by this time, instead she waited directly in front of the door. She saw the door knob turn as Quinn opened the door. The blonde slightly jumped when she saw Rachel staring at her. "Quinn," she said sternly.  
"Hello to you too," Quinn said.  
"Must be pretty stressed out about something," she said, then lunging at Quinn's purse.  
"What the hell? What the fuck are you doing, Berry? Get out of my purse!" Quinn said as she ripped the purse away.  
"I saw you smoking, Quinn."  
"Okay? Do you not get out a lot?" Quinn asked, clearly not in the mood to deal with Rachel right now.  
"How could you, Quinn? Do you know what you're doing to your vocal chords?" Rachel asked.  
"Oh, Jesus," Quinn mumbled.  
Rachel grabbed a hold of Quinn's hand, "Quinn, if there's anything wrong you know you can talk to me."  
"Nothing's wrong," Quinn told her, tearing her hand away.  
"What is it? Money, drugs, sex, babies?" Rachel asked.  
"Stop, Rachel! Nothing is wrong, what is your problem?"  
"Well, you're the one coming here every weekend and basically moving in for the summer!" Rachel told her.  
"Am I not allowed to want to see my friend?" Quinn asked.  
"It would be perfectly okay if you weren't so shady about it!" Rachel told her.  
"How am I being shady? Really, what goes up there in that head?" Quinn didn't mean to actually argue or even talk to Rachel about this, but something in her snapped, she felt like she needed to defend her reasoning to be at the apartment all the time. She felt like she needed to prove to Rachel there was nothing wrong. And somewhere deep down, she felt like she needed to convince herself that Rachel was just being Rachel.  
"Quinn, I've known you for four years now. Even if you don't think it, I like to think of you as one of my close friends and I like to think I know when something is wrong. And even more so, I like to think you would talk to me," Rachel told Quinn. She genuinely did care about Quinn, and it saddened her that they couldn't even have a conversation without old bitchy Quinn coming out.  
"Maybe Santana is right. Maybe you do have a big lesbian crush on me," Quinn said with a half smirk as she watched Rachel's face drop, "Maybe you're just jealous I only started coming here when Santana showed up."  
"What? No! Sorry, Quinn. I think you're very pretty but I am not into girls." Rachel said, blushing a bit. This was the response she got? Why didn't Quinn care about her anymore? Why couldn't she ask Quinn how life was going without her jumping to conclusions that she had a big lesbian crush on her. Sure, other people may be a bit more tactful while trying to rekindle an old friendship, but Quinn had known Rachel long enough. She should have known that Rachel's way of normal was a complete 360 of most people's.  
"Whatever you say. Just don't watch me in the shower," Quinn said fully smirking now.  
"I'm not a lesbian! Go ahead, scissor me! See if I care!" Rachel said, crossing her arms over her chest.  
Quinn closed her eyes, she couldn't believe that just came out of Rachel Berry's mouth. But before she could say anything to respond, Santana came out from her room.  
"Quinn, what's taking you so long?"  
"Sorry, I got side tracked by Investigator Berry," Quinn rolled her eyes  
"Oh, Jesus. You too? Rachel, what did I tell you? Nothing is going on. Whatever you're making up inside that head of yours if a complete false reality. Now be a good adult, and leave us alone!" Santana told her.  
Rachel wasn't convinced yet. There had to be a reason why Quinn wouldn't answer her directly. There had to be a reason why Quinn didn't even want to talk to Rachel anymore. There had to be a reason why she was coming to the apartment so often, and there absolutely had to be a reason why she started smoking. So instead of arguing anymore, Rachel simply left to her room to ponder. She was going to get to the bottom of this, even if it meant going to extreme measures.

***  
Back in Santana's room, Quinn and Santana were getting ready to go out for the night.  
"I don't understand why she's so weird sometimes," Quinn said, referring to Rachel.  
"You knew her in high school. What made you think she'd change?" Santana asked while applying eyeliner.  
Quinn was straightening her hair, "I guess I just thought she might have changed a little bit. I don't know why it has to be such a big deal that I'm here all the time. We hung out all the time in high school."  
"Yeah, bitch's crazy," Santana thought a bit before she said her next part. Rachel did make a slightly interesting point. Quinn was around alot, and not that Santana didn't enjoy it - there just had to be a reason. She never started coming around till after the wedding, "I mean, there is nothing wrong, right?"  
"Huh?" Quinn looked away at the mirror to Santana.  
"You know you can talk to me if anything is wrong," Santana told her.  
"You too? Did you catch the Rachel bug? Nothing is wrong!" Quinn told her.  
"Woah, no need to get defensive, chica. I was just asking," Santana said, going back to putting on lipstick.  
"Do you not want me to come around anymore? I mean the semester ends soon, I can go back home if you want," Quinn said, suddenly afraid Santana might actually say yes. She did really like to be around Santana. Ever since she accidentally slept with her, she just wanted to be around her more, although she wouldn't admit that to anybody. She was happy Santana hadn't been asking many questions, because she really did intend to keep the sex with the best friend as a limited edition thing- but that didn't mean she couldn't enjoy the company.  
"No! I just want you to know I'm here," Santana told her.  
"Well, thanks," Quinn said, finishing straightening her hair. Maybe there was something more she wanted to talk to Santana about, but mental thoughts were hard to express especially when she wasn't even sure what they were. But if Santana was truly her friend, she hoped she wouldn't press the subject anymore. "Are you almost ready?" Quinn asked, wanting to move on.  
"Yeah, let me just finish my makeup," and with that the conversation was over.

***  
Later that night Quinn and Santana came stumbling through the door of the apartment. It was 3 in the morning, and Rachel was still in the living room of the apartment, sitting contentedly watching old broadway performances. She was not waiting for Quinn and Santana to see if they would tell her drunk secrets. That would be ridiculous and a complete waste of time. But if she happened to be out watching broadway musicals that would strengthen her educational background and they happen to spit out a secret or two, then it would be completely beneficial to everybody.  
She heard hushed whispers and giggles as Santana tried to unlock the door, "Shh, somebody's still up watching t.v!" She heard one say. Finally, the door opened and Quinn and Santana, who were clearly drunk, stumbled in.  
"Rachel!" Quinn said as she rushed over to give her a hug, "What are you still doing up?"  
"Probably stalking us to see if we're making sweet lesbian love," Santana laughed.  
Rachel pulled away from Quinn's embrace, "Uhm, hi, Quinn. I was just going to bed." Rachel felt slightly uncomfortable for some reason. Normally, she'd being using every investigation tool she had ever learned in high school to get info out of Quinn, but the fact that she was all clingy to Rachel after she had been clearly annoyed with her earlier, was weird. Rachel felt bad taking advantage of her.  
"Come on, Quinn. Let's go to bed," Santana said as she gestured Quinn to the door. She could have sworn she saw Santana wink. Quinn gave Rachel one last look, like she wanted to say something but couldn't find the right words to say it. Or knew she'd regret it in the morning. She then followed Santana into the bedroom. Santana then winked at Rachel and closed the door.  
Something woke up in Rachel. The emotion she hadn't been able to pin was jealousy. She thought her and Quinn were good friends. But why had they grown apart? All through high school all Rachel ever wanted was to be best friends with Quinn Fabray and by the end of her senior year, she had that goal. Quinn had been there for her, they'd make jokes with each other. Why did Rachel let them grown apart? She secretly loved when people made jokes about them dating. She always thought it was because she knew people associated them with each other, but now maybe it was something more.  
This was too many thoughts for her own head so late at night. Kurt was usually up late on a Friday night and right now all she wanted to do was to talk to a friend. She knocked on his door.  
"God, what is it, woman? It's 3 in the morning!" he said as he opened the door.  
"How did you know it was me?" She asked.  
"Nobody else would knock on my door so late at night," Kurt said.  
Rachel thought about his answer for a bit, "Can I talk to you?"  
"Is something wrong?" Kurt opened the door wider, a silent invitation for her to come in.  
"If you were a girl, would you want to experiment with me?" Rachel asked.  
"Hunny, I don't like girls," Kurt said with a smile, he seemed unphased by the question.  
"I know. But let's just say you did for a second. Would you find me sexually attractive?" Rachel asked.  
"Is this about Quinn and Santana again? God, I should have never even said anything," Kurt rolled his eyes. "Why do you care so much?"  
"I just wish I knew what happened to high school," Rachel thought out loud.  
"We graduated," Kurt said, "Now, why are you asking me questions about your sex appeal?"  
"I just thought Quinn and I were friends," Rachel shrugged.  
"Since when do friends care about sex appeal?" Kurt asked, raising his eyebrow like he knew where this conversation was going.  
Rachel thought for a moment before she decided how she wanted to say this, "You know how sexuality is different for girls? Like, it's okay for girls to get really drunk and want to experiment?"  
"I guess," Kurt said, quietly thinking about how that was extremely sexist, but didn't feel the need to point that out to Rachel right now.  
"Well, why don't people want to do that with me?" Rachel asked.  
"Are you saying you want to experiment?" Kurt raised his eyebrow again.  
"No! It's just the thought. I know people pin me as this straight edge girl, but sometimes I want some drunken fun too!" Rachel told Kurt.  
"I think somebody is bored and tired and verbally puking on me," Kurt smirked.  
"I guess I just miss having girlfriends. Close girlfriends," Rachel told him.  
"Well," Kurt said, "I'll always be here for you. And for the record, you have great sex appeal. You've slept with my brother, and although it pains me to bring it up- I did have a rather big crush on him. And Brody was all over you before you decided to take a break from his presence, and he doesn't hurt the eyes." Rachel smiled at the comment as she remembered how her sex life wasn't so bad, even if it didn't involve girls. She wasn't even a lesbian or even remotely attracted to girls, so why should she care if Quinn or any other girl didn't want to experiment with her. Kurt finished his sentence with a comic relief, which he was often good at, " And if I was a lady, I'd totally scissor you or whatever lezzies do the moment I saw you."  
Rachel giggled, "Thanks, Kurt.". Rachel yawned, "I think I'm going to go to bed now. Thanks for talking to me."  
"The door is always open, unless there's a sock on it," Kurt winked, which Rachel knew was a reference to the code they had first established when moving in. A sock meant they were having sex and it was not a proper time to enter. She thought maybe she should check Santana's door, but knew Santana probably didn't care enough to even abide by the code. So, she just decided to retire to her room and fall into sleep, trying to forget Quinn Fabray and all the sex she may or may not be having right now.

The next morning Rachel woke up to her phone buzzing, it was Finn.  
"Hey," he said.  
"Good morning," she yawned.  
"How'd you sleep?" he asked.  
"Fine, what's up?" Rachel asked, not really in the mood for a dull conversation with Finn.  
"Well, my parents want to go to New York City next weekend and I was wondering if you maybe wanted to hang out,"  
"Of course! Why wouldn't I?" Rachel asked, maybe seeing Finn would get her mind off of Quinn and Santana.  
"I don't know. I thought you might be busy with school or something," he said.  
"Nope, next weekend should be good."  
"Okay, well. I'll see you then! I'm really excited. Don't worry, I already have this really awesome date planned!" he said. She knew why he was getting so excited about this. Aside from Skype calls, it would be the first time they saw each other since the wedding. Rachel had gotten the hints that he wanted to take their relationship back to dating, and she wasn't really sure what she wanted to do next. Maybe seeing him would help her get her head straight, literally.  
"Me too, see you then," she said.  
"I love you," he said back, which caught Rachel off guard. Never did he end conversations like that and Rachel was at a loss of words.  
"Um, yeah, bye," she panicked as she hung up the phone. This was too much to deal with right now. First, she was realizing that she really did lose her high school friend, and now her high school sweetheart was saying 'I love you' like it was a normal thing. Being an adult seemed an awful like a teenage love story just with different ages and people telling her she needed to grow up.  
Rachel decided to have her morning fruit and was surprised to see Quinn at the table reading some type of gossip magazine. Quinn looked up as the door opened, but didn't say anything. Rachel was unsure about how she wanted to approach this. Last night, Quinn seemed to be best friends with her, but this morning it was just like before. 24 hours ago, Rachel would be snooping, but now she wasn't sure if she wanted to. She wasn't sure if she wanted to find out all the answers, it might just confuse her more or even hurt her. She decided a friendly hello was the best way to approach the situation, it was something Rachel would do even if she wasn't playing detective.  
"Good morning," she smiled.  
"Hi," Quinn didn't even look up from the magazine to greet her.  
Rachel bit her lip, not wanting to end the conversation at such an awkward end, but also didn't want to push Quinn any further. She didn't seem like she wanted to talk at all, but that was her usual way towards Rachel. She decided she was just making things up so decided to proceed how she normally would, "How was your night?"  
Quinn looked up from her magazine and glared at Rachel, "Don't even start. I'm really not in the mood."  
"A bit hung over?" Rachel glanced at the coffee mug in front of Quinn.  
"I said shut it," Quinn growled.  
"Just trying to make friendly morning conversation!" Rachel defended herself.  
Quinn was now looking at Rachel, "We both know what this was about. It was a damn hug, Rachel. Not a ploy to get in your pants or any other crazy theory you already have made up. Just a drunken hug."  
"I'm not naive Quinn," Rachel said a bit offended, "I know how people act when they're drunk and how they might do something wouldn't do when they are sober. Including sleeping with their best friend," Rachel threw in at the end. If Quinn was going to automatically assume she was up to something, Rachel might as well play the part. She had no question that she saw Santana wink when she closed the bedroom door and that was something Quinn probably didn't notice.  
"Oh my god," Quinn groaned, "It's always full circle with you, isn't it? I didn't have sex with Santana last night!" Quinn was almost yelling. Rachel wasn't sure what it was this morning, but Quinn was on edge. Something must be bothering her. Usually, she'd ignore Rachel until she went away, but this morning she was the one that even brought it up when Rachel had no intentions of even mentioning it.  
"I'm just saying, most best friends don't look so smug when closing a door unless they intend to strip you of your innocence behind it."  
Quinn glared at Rachel for a moment, probably because Rachel always had such an awkward way of phrasing everything. "You're honestly crazy, you know that?"  
"You're the one that brought it up!" Rachel defended, she was tired of everybody calling her crazy when she clearly knew something was going on.  
"Only because you walked into this kitchen with that smug I'm-Rachel-Berry-And-I-Know-Some-Drama-Is-Going-On-And-I-Need-To-Be-Apart-Of-It look on your face," Quinn told her, now with the magazine not even in her hand.  
"I don't always need to be apart of drama, Quinn!" Rachel yelled at her.  
"Please!" Quinn yelled back, "That's all you were known for in High School!"  
"This isn't High School anymore, Quinn. People change! I know when something is wrong with one of my best friends and I just want to be there for her! How does that make me crazy?"  
"Because we don't talk anymore, Rachel! You're right, people do change after high school, and so do friends! We're not friends anymore, Rachel. So stop trying to butt into my life and my problems!" The words hurt Rachel. They were the words she didn't want to hear. Quinn Fabray didn't want Rachel in her life anymore, and that honestly hurt her. Rachel never liked losing friends, when Sidney moved away it took a bribe of a new karaoke machine from her fathers to pull her out of her room. Rachel spent so much time trying to gain friends, that when she lost one of them, it felt like a part of her died. The fact that Quinn basically just admitted something was wrong and she didn't want Rachel to help with it, killed her even more.  
"Fine. I'll leave you alone then," that's the only words Rachel could manage to get out before she felt the tears coming. There was no way she wanted Quinn to see her crying over this. Obviously, Quinn didn't care about losing a friend as much as Rachel. And Quinn seeing her crying about this would only give her more of a reason to make fun of her. She turned around and went straight to her room where she remained for the rest of the day.


	3. Chapter 3

_I understand where everybody is coming from saying that Quinn and Santana are being really bitchy, and perhaps they are being a bit too harsh. But an important thing to remember is that 3 years ago Quinn and Santana were really mean to Rachel and the whole fic Rachel is feeling like she's back to the beginning of High School. I'm sorry that maybe I didn't make that point obvious enough, writer fault. I hope to have fixed that in this chapter and hopefully make up for the bitchy-ness of the duo. Thanks for the reviews and follows! I hope you can get into this chapter._

_Illegal substances are involved in this chapter. Well, weed. And that's legal in like 3 states, right?_

_Song - Just Give Me A Reason by P!nk ft. Nate Ruess. I HIGHLY recommend listening to the song before reading this chapter, I personally think it adds a lot and that song is where I got the entire inspiration for the story._

**Chapter 3**

For the rest of the weekend Rachel avoided Quinn and Santana, and when the weekend finally ended Rachel lived her week like normal. Friday rolled around again, which was bitter sweet. It was one week closer to the semester ending and Quinn practically moving in, but also Finn was visiting which still had potential to clear her head. She was happy that her date with Finn began before Quinn would arrive, so today would be an easy day to avoid reminding herself that Quinn and her were no longer friends.  
She was getting ready for her day with Finn when a knock on her bedroom door and she greeted the visitor to come in. Kurt peaked his around the door.  
"Did you know Blaine was visiting this weekend?"  
Rachel looked away from her vanity and at Kurt, "I assumed so, since Finn said his parents wanted to come visit."  
"And you didn't tell me!?" Kurt asked.  
"Well, I thought he would tell you," Rachel answered.  
"Well, he didn't. And now he's here, wanting to take me on a super special date, and here I am not ready at all. Look at my hair today! I didn't even touch it!" Kurt panicked.  
Rachel smiled at Kurt's problems, "You look great no matter what."  
"Please, don't use that line on me," Kurt mumbled. Rachel giggled a little bit and went back to her vanity. Kurt obviously knew something was up, usually Rachel would talk his ear off. He opened the door a bit more and walked in, "Are you okay? You've seemed kind of blue this week."  
"I'm fine," Rachel lied. She really wasn't fine. The words Quinn said to her kept repeating through her head, and even though they never ever texted anymore since they went to college, it's all she wanted to do each time she looked at her phone. To call her, or even send her a long text, apologizing for growing apart and not trying harder to keep in touch. Also, the fact that Finn was visiting, and probably expected a happy reunion was also keeping her down. She wasn't in the mood for Finn's dopey face and definitely wasn't in the mood to talk about relationships.  
"I've been thinking about it," Kurt said, "And Quinn and Santana really don't treat you very nicely for always being in our apartment. I'll say something to them if you want. You shouldn't feel this way."  
Rachel instantly knew she didn't want Kurt to talk them. It would only make things worse. She'd be accused of having somebody else fighting her battles and be called sensitive. And then they'd just tell her to grow up again. No. Having Kurt talk to them was a very bad idea. "I appreciate the concern, but I'll be fine. I'm a big girl."  
"Well, if you do. Let me know. I won't beat Santana up or anything, because I'm afraid of her. But I will use my gay sassiness to make her move out!" Kurt joked.  
Rachel smiled, "Thanks, Kurt. Now go get ready! Don't keep Blaine waiting!"  
"Right!" And Kurt hurried to go get ready. Rachel returned to her vanity to get ready for her date with Finn. Not that she was looking forward to it, but it was something would keep her busy and also away from the high school drama she thought she escaped.

Rachel took the subway to where she was meeting Finn. She saw the tall, goofy guy right away with that stupid grin on his face when he saw her. She already knew he was more excited about this than her. She really wasn't in the mood for him, in fact all this week she had been making up excuses to why she couldn't answer his skype calls. At the wedding, he basically forced his drunken thoughts onto her and put stupid ideas in her head. As soon as she returned to New York City she was happy not to deal with Finn anymore, and so what if she maybe had naughty skype calls with him, ever since she told Brody she needed a break - she was lonely and Finn was there. But right now, she wasn't in the mood to play happy for Finn. She was still hurt that High School never ended for her and Finn was just a constant reminder of that.  
"Hey," he said as he put his arms around her and hugged her.  
"Hi," she half squeezed him back.  
Finn checked the time on his phone, which always bothered Rachel. She was very old fashioned and would never be seen without a watch on. She refused to accept the fact that cell phones were going to become the only thing a person ever needed. That was just way too simple and nullified a lot of fashion accessories. Rachel checked her own watch that matched her black and white striped dress, perfectly, thank you very much and told him, "It's 6:15."  
"Sorry," he said, putting his phone back into his pocket, "I had a text." Rachel rolled her eyes, it was like Finn to text somebody else while they were on a date. Rachel wasn't worried that it was another girl, she knew it was probably just Puck asking about their next video game date. But the fact that it couldn't wait bothered Rachel. Another reason why cell phones were more of a burden.  
"Anyway, I have tickets to go see Phantom of the Opera at 7. I thought you might like it," Finn flashed the two tickets from his pocket.  
Right. That's just what she wanted to see again. Not that she didn't appreciate the musical, but Finn didn't take into account that it was one of the longest broadway shows running, and Rachel had been in love with musicals since she entered the world. She had saw Phantom when she was 7, 9, and 15. There was only so many times even Rachel Berry could handle a chandelier falling before it got boring. But Rachel kept her mouth shut, "Sounds like fun!" And Finn held out his hand to lead her to the theater. Rachel was hesitant to grab his hand, but knew if she didn't it would turn out to be a sour night for the both of them.  
The seats Finn got, were pretty basic. She watched the show with full concentration, like usual, because as a performer she knew it wasn't the actors fault that this was her fourth time (Not counting the amount of times she had watched the movie) seeing it. She looked over at Finn, who was fast asleep, and rolled her eyes.  
At the end of show, he was woken up by the clapping and pretended to be clapping all along. As they left the theater he tried to make conversation about the show.  
"No wonder it's been here for so long."  
"How would you know? You fell asleep," Rachel accused him.  
"I saw most of it! There was just a lot of..singing," he shrugged.  
Rachel was use to the lack of appreciation Finn often gave to performances. It was a joke that he ever wanted to be an actor. But instead of saying anything, she just let him lead the way to a restaurant for a late dinner.  
The conversation over the meal was boring, because Finn was never good at starting small talk when there was something he wanted to say. Finally, halfway into the meal he spoke up.  
"So I've been thinking. School is going to let out soon and Mr. Schu is coming back for next year, and I won't really have anything to do anymore in Lima." Finn took a breathe, "So I was thinking, maybe I should move up here and we can get a place."  
Rachel dropped her fork which had been diving into her salad, "Are you asking me to move in with you?"  
"Well," he tried to pause to think of something more profoundly to say, "Yeah."  
Rachel took the napkin off her lap and wiped her mouth to buy some time on how she could politely turn him down, but honestly, she had thought too much this week and blurted out, "Are you crazy?" Finn gave his usual look when he didn't know what to say. Mouth open like a fish, eyes like a deer in the headlight. Rachel knew he wasn't going to respond, so she continued, "We're not even dating, Finn. Besides what would you do here anyway? Be like Santana and sit in her room all day waiting for Quinn? Is that what you want? To sit in the apartment all day and wait for me?"  
"Huh?" Finn said, clearly confused how Santana and Quinn got pulled into this conversation. "I'd find a job," he offered.  
Rachel shook her head, "I don't think it's a good idea."  
"Why do you keep denying me, Rachel? You love me, you know we're en..." he started to say, but Rachel knew how to finish.  
"End game, I know. But Finn, stop trying to verbally rape my emotions. You don't know how I feel. Stop forcing yourself onto me. We had fun in high school, sure. But it's different now. I think we both really need to move on."  
Finn looked hurt, but Rachel didn't care. It needed to be said. Finn had been controlling her emotions since he first joined Glee club. Enough was enough. Finn put his hand up and called the waiter over, "Can we have the bill, please?"  
It was typical for Finn to pout and pretend like he didn't care that Rachel had broken up with him for the 20 millionth time even when they weren't dating, but she knew tomorrow there'd be an abundance of calls from him that she knew she wouldn't return. Rachel was honestly tired of being guilted into loving Finn.  
"If that's what you want," Finn said standing up, "Then I guess I'll leave you alone." He walked out of the restaurant, leaving Rachel abandoned. She didn't mind though, it was probably for the better. She decided right there and then she was done with Finn. She was done with high school drama. When she first started investigating Quinn, she thought that's what she wanted, but she was wrong. There was a reason she enjoyed living in New York City with Kurt and only Kurt. There was reason she wanted to escape high school so badly. But apparently high school didn't want to escape her, because it followed her to New York City. But now, she'd take it into her own hands to turn high school away and start her adulthood life.  
Rachel finally returned back to her apartment around midnight, with the events of the night she completely forgot Quinn and Santana would probably be there. She opened the door and immediately smelled what was going on. She had lived in New York City long enough to know what marijuana smelled like. She quickly plugged her nose and confirmed her fears when she saw Quinn and Santana staring droopy eyes into space with what looked to be a joint in Santana's hand.  
"What the hell are you guys doing?" Rachel said, her nose still plugged by her hand.  
Santana just looked at her and started laughing, "Chill out, Rachel."  
"No! You guys can't smoke in the apartment! If you want to harm your own lungs, go ahead, but don't infect me with your second hand smoke!" Hurting her vocal chords is where she drew the line, besides her night was already bad enough, she was not going to deal with this tonight.  
"Weed doesn't put off second hand smoke," Santana laughed.  
"You need to calm down," Quinn said, standing up. Rachel could clearly see her eyes were red, "Here. Try this."  
"No, no, no, no," Rachel shook her head. Her voice was still nasily because she refused to move her hands from her nose, "Now please, go outside and do that."  
"Rachel, c'mon. Don't be such a party pooper. Just one puff. It won't hurt you, so many performers do it, and they're fine." Quinn offered.  
"Yeah, like Justin Bieber!" Santana started laughing again like it was the funniest thing ever.  
"Just try it, for me," Quinn pleaded.  
Rachel knew being pressured into drugs was a bad thing, but she did tell Kurt a couple weeks ago that she wanted to try new things. Plus, Quinn was asking her nicely, almost as a friend to try it. But she remembered everything she learned in high school, like being peer pressured was bad and she shouldn't give in, you shouldn't have sex before marriage, and underage drinking lead to consequences. But after a night like tonight, she wasn't sure she cared about what was morally correct and incorrect.  
Rachel took the weird, paper, thing out of Quinn's hand and Quinn gave a goofy smile. Rachel took a deep breath and inhaled the substance. She let the smoke inflate her lungs for a while, then blew the smoke out. It tasted terrible and she started to cough. Quinn and Santana just started to laugh.  
"Come sit on the couch, and have a drink," Quinn said, leading her to the couch. Rachel was still shocked that she had let herself inhale the drugs. Rachel Berry had just done an illegal drug. And now she was scared. She had no clue what would come next, but she decided sitting down with Quinn and Santana was probably the best thing. Besides, they were offering.  
Quinn and Santana started talking about something that didn't make sense to Rachel, so she drifted to her own thoughts. It seemed as if everything started to slow down and her thoughts were becoming easier to understand. It wasn't right that Quinn and Santana were treating her like a dog in her own apartment. It wasn't okay that Finn thought he could always come running back to Rachel. And it definitely wasn't acceptable that Quinn got to decide when her and Rachel weren't friends anymore. Rachel was lost deep into her own thought before she heard Quinn saying her name.  
"Rachel, you okay?" Quinn asked, slightly shaking her shoulder.  
Rachel gathered her thoughts. What she really wanted right now was some music. "Quinn," she said after a slight pause, "Will you sing a song with me?"  
Quinn looked a little confused, "Right now?"  
"Yes. I have a karaoke machine," Rachel said.  
Quinn started laughing, "Rachel, I haven't sung since high school."  
Now Santana was engaged in the conversation, "Come on, bitches! Entertain me!"  
"I'm not singing," Quinn said firmly.  
Maybe it was the drugs in her system, but something inside of Rachel told her to not let Quinn back out of this one. "Quinn, you've been coming to my apartment for weeks now and treating me like I don't exist when I was there for you all through high school. You owe me, so you're going to sing one fucking song with me."  
Quinn was taken back by the anger in Rachel's voice, and especially the F bomb that she threw in there. She occasionally heard Rachel slip a swear word, but never the 'F' word.  
"Fine," she started to stand up and Rachel went to hook the karaoke machine up. Santana got comfy on the couch.  
"This is going to be so good, like a private concert," Santana said rubbing her hands together. She was clearly not in her right mind, because normally she'd be accusing this as the stupidest thing she ever heard.  
Rachel pulled out the machine and her phone and looked on Youtube for the song she wanted. It was a convenient karaoke machine where you could find a video on your phone and plug it in. You could even find a lyric video so the words would pop up. Not that Rachel needed the words, but Quinn might need one. She plugged in her phone to the outlet and handed one microphone to Quinn, who was just standing up, awkwardly.  
"This seems like a lot of work," she grunted.  
"Shut up and sing," Rachel said, not letting her back out of this.  
"What are we even singing?" Quinn asked.  
"It's a new song, kind of. Top 40's, naturally. I'll sing the first part, you sing the second," and before Quinn could protest, she pressed the play button and the piano started to play, she waited for when P!nk's voice would usually start, but instead it was hers. In her stoned head, it felt like this was a concert, even though Santana was the only audience member.  
Right from the start  
You were a thief  
You stole my heart  
And, I your willing victim  
I let you see the parts of me  
That weren't all that pretty

Rachel instantly had a flashback of the times in High School when she'd go to Quinn for help. The time Finn asked her to marry her, and Quinn talked her out of it, particular stood out.

And with every touch you fixed them  
Now you've been talking in your sleep oh, oh  
Things you never say to me oh, oh  
Tell me that you've had enough  
Of our love, our love

Rachel didn't care that the song was all about a broken relationship, she was well aware of this. At this moment, this was how she felt and again, maybe it was the drugs talking - but she wanted Quinn to know.

Just give me a reason  
Just a little bit's enough  
Just a second we're not broken, just bent  
And we can learn to love again  
It's in the stars  
It's been written in the scars on our hearts  
We're not broken, just bent  
And we can learn to love again

The brunette looked at Quinn while she sang the chorus. For a slight second, Quinn looked into her eyes like she understood completely what Rachel was trying to say to her. But she looked away. Rachel expected her to put the microphone down and sit with Santana and laugh about it. Rachel also started to look away, because she wasn't sure she'd be able to handle seeing it actually play out. Rachel, herself, was just about to put the microphone down before the embarrassment happened, but instead, she heard Quinn's well familiar voice chime in.

I'm sorry I don't understand  
Where all of this is coming from  
I thought that we were fine  
Rachel slightly smiled at the fact that Quinn had verbally accepted the duet. She sang her next line that came up.

Oh, we had everything

As the line echoed in her head as she sang it, her head went to a flashback of Glee club, near the end of senior year when Quinn would dance with her while they were singing a number.

Your head is running wild again  
My dear we still have everythin'  
And it's all in your mind

Quinn smiled as she sang the next line to Rachel. It warmed Rachel's heart to know Quinn seemed to be on the same brain frequency right now. Sure, she was just singing lyrics that somebody else wrote, therefore the response was written in the script, but Quinn was singing like she meant it. Rachel knew when somebody meant a song or when they were just faking it. It was a reason she was a musical theatre major.

Yeah, but this is happenin'

As she told Quinn the last line, she thought about last week how Quinn had told her that they weren't friends anymore. She thought about how that haunted her for the rest of the week, and literally made her life a living hell. Quinn meant more to Rachel then she ever let on.

You've been having real bad dreams. Oh, oh.  
You use to lie so close to me. Oh, Oh.

Rachel listened to Quinn sing and remembered the times she texted Quinn just for no reason, just something funny she heard. Or the time she texted Quinn to ask where she was because she refused to start her wedding without her best friend. And now, she never did that. She prepared herself to sing the next part with Quinn.

There's nothing more than empty sheets  
Between our love, our love  
Oh our love, our love

They could feel it in each other's voices that they both forgot they were even singing a song or that Santana was watching them both perform as they both sang the chorus.

Just give me a reason  
Just a little bit's enough  
Just a second we're not broken just bent  
And we can learn to love again

Rachel looked at the blonde who sang the next line staring into her eyes.

I never stopped

A smile couldn't help but creep onto Rachel's face when she saw Quinn smile after she said the line to her, which made her put her all into the next part of the chorus.

You're still written in the scars on my heart  
You're not broken just bent  
And we can learn to love again

Rachel knew the next part they'd take turns singing reassurances to each other. She knew she would mean it, so she watched Quinn closely to see if the lyrics matched her body movements. As Rachel let each line out, she remembered how closely the song related to them.

Oh tear ducts and rust

I'll fix it for us

We're collecting dust, But our love's enough  
All the times Quinn walked into the apartment and didn't speak a word to her. But for some reason, Rachel thought they could still be friends.

You're holding it in  
As Quinn sang the last part, she realized that she had been holding a lot in. She wasn't talking to Quinn and she was basically letting them run all over her like a piece of furniture.

You're pouring a drink  
The time Quinn came home drunk and hugged her, the cigarette, and now the marijuana smoking, all came to mind.

No nothing is as bad as it seems  
Quinn was smiling again, as she was looking directly at Rachel while singing. Rachel belted the next part.

We'll come clean

They both finished the song with more energy than they started with. Rachel honestly didn't want the song to end, but the final chords were coming, and Rachel refused to look anywhere else but Quinn's eyes. Quinn seemed to be devoted to the same thing.

We can learn to love again.

When they song finally ended, the aftermath mixture of ecstasy, chemistry, and energy still surrounded them. Rachel and Quinn were both just staring at each other, smiling, not really sure what to say to each other. But then, they were both brought down from whatever fantasy land they were on, where it was acceptable to sing their feelings by Santana's clapping, and also Kurt's, who neither of them noticed walked in during the performance. Which was understandable, both were pretty oblivious during the song.  
"Well, if that wasn't gay. I don't know what is. And I thought I was pretty gay," Santana cracked a joke, which was predictable. "What do you say, Kurt?"  
Rachel couldn't even be bothered to hear Kurt's response, she was suddenly very tired and the last thing she wanted to do was to deal with Santana's wise cracks about her and Quinn being in love. She was suddenly very worried she made up the chemistry in her head while they were singing, that it was the drugs making her hallucinate it all. It probably didn't even sound good. She didn't even know if marijuana could even make somebody hallucinate, but instead of blaming her crazy, theory, making self- it was something to else to blame. She started to walk towards her bedroom and Kurt called out.  
"Where are you going?"  
"To bed," she said. She didn't even stop walking, she was physically and emotionally tired from today. She entered her room and put on a pair of gym shorts and an old Glee t-shirt that all the Glee kids signed. Everybody told Rachel it was a stupid idea, but she secretly knew they all had a blast signing each other's at the end of the year. Rachel stood with only a bra on for awhile, looking for Quinn's signature on the shirt, which she knew by heart where it was. When Quinn had signed it, she put a note by it, 'I love you' with a heart and her name. She stared at it for awhile, having flashbacks of all the good times her and Quinn had together during high school. She thought about all the reasons why Quinn put those words on the back of her shirt. Because she meant them. What had gone on in the course of a year to change all of that?  
Her concentration was broken by a knock at her door. She assumed it was Kurt. Although she wasn't really in the mood to talk to him, he always let her come in his room no matter how busy or tired he was, so she told him to come in.  
But it wasn't Kurt, it was Quinn.  
"Oh," Rachel let out at the sight of Quinn. She was so surprised to see Quinn in her room, that she forgot she wasn't wearing a shirt, just a simple black bra.  
"Hi," Quinn said awkwardly. She wasn't sure what to say next, "Thanks for singing with me."  
Rachel turned away and threw the Glee shirt onto the bed, her head was still hazy from the drugs and forgot why she had the shirt in her hands in the first place, "Don't mention it."  
"No, really. I needed it. I'm sorry, Rachel," Quinn lightly tapped her on the shoulder for reassurance.  
Rachel looked at Quinn, "For what? For making me feel like shit for the past weeks? For walking all over me like I don't matter? Acting like you're still in high school and queen bitch? What exactly are you sorry for, Quinn Fabray, because you've done a lot."  
This was new for Quinn. She wasn't expecting for Rachel to be so bitter, Rachel wasn't even expecting it either. She had word vomit right now. Usually she'd accept the apology and move on with her life, but Quinn had crossed a line that triggered Rachel.  
"For being a bitch, for everything," Quinn responded, not really sure how to make it better.  
"I'm not going to be that puppy dog that you can keep kicking, and it keeps coming back. I have feelings too, Quinn. I'm a real person, with feelings that can be hurt. Very hurt."  
"I know," Quinn started to say, but Rachel cut her off.  
"No, you don't know. All through high school you made my life so much harder. You constantly tried to steal my boyfriend, I can't even count the number of times I had to have my clothed dry cleaned because of the slushies you ordered to be thrown on me, and even when you did join Glee club you still acted like you were better than me. But you know, Quinn, I still wanted to be your friend, because I knew we were good for each other. And somehow, I convinced you of that and you were my friend. That made my life a lot easier because I knew you weren't constantly going to try and make it harder." Rachel paused for a brief second to collect her thoughts. Quinn was still standing in the room, just listening, "Then I don't know what happened. Maybe I should have tried harder to keep in touch, and maybe I should have made more of an effort to talk to you instead of creepily investigating you, but that doesn't give you a reason to act like a complete bitch to me. I don't know why you've decided to make my life harder again, but it really sucks." Rachel sat back down on the bed, almost defeated by her own words. It did suck, everything about this sucked.  
Quinn looked at her feet, trying to find the right words to say. Instead, Rachel saw a tear fall from her face and hit the floor. Rachel didn't know why Quinn was crying, she was the one that started acting like a bitch to her.  
"I'm sorry," she said, when she finally looked at Rachel, her cheeks wet with the tears that kept coming, "I'm so sorry, Rachel. I didn't mean...I don't...I just..." Quinn couldn't collect her thoughts to say anything, "I don't know what you want me to say."  
"I just want to know why you've been treating me so horribly," Rachel answered simply.  
Quinn took a deep breathe, drops were still streaming down her eyes, "I don't know how to explain it. Nothing I say is going to justify the way I've been treating you lately."  
"Just give me a reason," Rachel walked over and squeezed her shoulder, still only wearing her bra. A shirt was her last concern.  
"Something happened over the year. I thought back to high school a lot while I was in college. And I missed you. Isn't that crazy? Out of all my friends, when I was down and stressed, you're the only person I wanted to talk to. But, I remembered how you're in New York doing your star thing now, and didn't have time for little people like me. So I dealt with it, and the more I dealt with it, the more angry and lonelier I got." Rachel took this in, Quinn did miss her, but it still didn't give her a valid reason to act the way she did when she came to visit. "Then the wedding came, and Santana was there, and I was lonely. I got drunk and..experimented with Santana." Rachel gasped. She was right, they had slept together. Quinn tried to ignore the expression on Rachel's face, and kept going, "I realized something. First of all, I realized I did like sleeping with girls, and second that girl I wanted to sleep with was not Santana," Quinn took a deep breathe, "It was you."  
Rachel stood in silence for a bit. She wasn't sure what to say, she didn't know what the lines in the script were for this situation. For every scenario that played out in her head, this wasn't one that ever opened the curtains. The feelings inside Rachel right now were twisting and turning with each other. There were too many of them to even decipher what they were. Shocked, confusion, happy?  
A year ago, Rachel would have been jumping with joy. Quinn Fabray, cheer captain, had a crush on her, Rachel Berry. But now, she had been so hurt by Quinn the past weeks, it was hard to believe it. How could you treat somebody so badly that you supposedly liked?  
"I'm sorry," Quinn broke the silence, "I'll go now." She started to walk out the doors.  
"For how long?" Rachel asked, "How long have you liked me?"  
Quinn stopped and looked at Rachel, "I don't know when it clicked. I always did like being around you, so probably always." Rachel nodded at this, and Quinn started towards the door again. Just as her hand was on the doorknob, Rachel spoke.  
"Quinn," The blonde stopped mid-twist on the door and looked back at Rachel again, "That was a pretty good reason."  
Quinn gave Rachel a weak smile, "Good night." And with that, she went back out into the living space.


	4. Chapter 4

Rachel went too bad that night, too tired to do any more thinking. But her subconscious obviously hadn't had enough because she had a dream where Quinn and Rachel were back in high school. Instead of having a homecoming queen both Rachel and Quinn were queen and queen. When the names were announced it was completely normal for the two girls to be named royalty of the prom, almost like everybody expected it. Quinn looked at Rachel with a huge smile and took her hand to lead her to the center of the dance floor. They then positioned themselves to start the usual winning slow dance. Kurt came up behind Rachel, and Blaine was behind Quinn. They both placed a crown on the girls head in unison then bowed and left. Quinn was staring right at Rachel when the song, "A Thousand Years" started playing. She was smiling, and Rachel could feel the grin in her face too. But then, something was lost in translation and the song turned into "The Hokey Pokey" and Rachel and Quinn started doing that instead. Everybody joined in, like it was completely normal. That was when Rachel woke up.

She was still in a haze when she opened her eyes. She couldn't quite remember what was real and not real. She knew for a fact that she did not attend prom with Quinn last year. But the conversation she had with Quinn was very real.  
Holy shit. Quinn Fabray had a crush on her. The realization hit her again and the panicked feeling of not knowing how to react came over her again. Normally, Rachel had a plan, a screenplay, or even a vague idea on how to improv the next scene, but this time her mind drew a blank.  
She lay in bed for awhile before getting up and deciding how to approach the situation. She took her phone off the charger on her bed stand. Just as expected, she had 3 texts, 2 missed calls, and 1 voicemail from Finn. The texts were:  
I wish you all the luck in New York City  
Hey, I'll still be in NYC tomorrow if you want to hang out and try to talk things out.  
I miss you.  
Rachel rolled her eyes, she really didn't want to deal with Finn too. She punched in her voicemail password and listened to Finn's voice.  
"Hey Rachel. Sorry for leaving you tonight, I was upset. But I really want to talk things out with you and I know you do too. We're meant for eachother, Rachel. You know that. Without you, I don't know what I'd do. Please call me back, I need to talk to you."  
Rachel deleted the voicemail promptly and decided she'd call him back later so he couldn't guilt her into coming and seeing him before he went back to Lima where he belonged. Rachel decided to get out of bed instead of wasting any more time in bed. She obviously wasn't going to figure anything out from there.  
She realized she still hadn't put a shirt on from last night, so she grabbed the Glee shirt she already had out and slipped it over her head. Part of her hoped Quinn wouldn't be in the apartment or she'd be in Santana's room hiding like she usually did, but the other part of her hoped she might be out in the living space. Maybe seeing her would give her an idea on how to proceed. The brunette mentally prepared herself for whatever might be on the other side of the door, with or without Quinn.  
As she walked out of her room she saw a blonde head sitting on the couch, alone. She was watching T.v. When Quinn head Rachel open the door, she looked at her. "Good morning," she said and returned to watching t.v. Rachel started walking towards the couch where Quinn was, maybe a normal conversation, like nothing happened would be for the best right now.  
"Where's Santana?" Rachel asked.  
"The gym," Quinn answered.  
"You didn't want to go?" Rachel was curious, but Quinn only shook her head. They sat in the company of the t.v for awhile. Quinn was watching the morning news. Finally, during a story about a bank robbery, Quinn spoke up.  
"I meant what I said last night. I really am sorry."  
"I know," Rachel said, not knowing what else to say.  
"Are you ever going to forgive me?" She asked while looking at Rachel. She had a pleading in her eye.  
Rachel let a beat go by before answering, "You have to understand, you really hurt me."  
Quinn nodded but a dash of disappointment tainted her face, "I understand." She looked down at her feet.  
"But," Rachel started again. She really didn't like to see Quinn so disappointed and sad. It was a weak spot for her. She always just wanted people to be as happy as they could possibly be. Some people told her she lived in a fantasy world, but she didn't think so. She just wanted a world where nobody was sad. Maybe it was juvenile, but to her it was important. "That doesn't mean we can't be friends."  
Quinn smiled, "I'd like that."  
Rachel took a deep breathe before she said what was on her mind. Did she really want to make a commitment to this? Was this something she saw that could potentially happen? "Do you maybe," she bit her lip, "Want to go get dinner tonight? Maybe go dancing later?" Rachel asked, hoping this wouldn't get turned around in her face.  
Quinn turned her head from the t.v and looked at Rachel with a smile, "That'd be really great."  
"Okay. We can leave around 7...I mean if that works for you," Rachel stuttered, she often did that when she was nervous.  
"Yeah, that's fine," Quinn agreed. Rachel smiled and started to turn away, she couldn't think of anything else to say. "Rachel," Rachel stopped, "I really am sorry."  
"I know, " she said. Quinn just looked at Rachel and smiled a smile like she knew she couldn't do anything more. She nodded again and returned to the morning news, which was now covering a story about new medical advances to repair an injured heart.

Rachel spent the remainder of the day in her room, listening to music and reading old romance novels. She was content with the way the conversation went with Quinn earlier. An old fashion conversation over dinner was the most practical move to take next. Rachel was still confused by Quinn. She didn't understand how all the pieces fell into place. She hoped Quinn would be open to talk during their outing.  
That was another thing that kept creeping into her mind. Rachel wasn't sure what to call her dinner with Quinn, she wasn't even sure what Quinn would consider it. A date? Rachel didn't know if she was ready for that.  
The fact was that Rachel never thought about her sexuality much. Her dads were gay, so she assumed the chances of their daughter, even if she wasn't biological, being gay was very slim. Plus, she never pictured her life with a women. There wasn't any Disney princesses that fell in love with Princess Charming, and that's basically all Rachel had been basing her life off of since she was a toddler. Be the star with a handsome male counterpart. She never thought about being the star with the beautiful women counterpart.  
A knock on the door broke her thoughts, "It's Kurt." The person said on the other side.  
"Come in!"  
"What's up?" he asked in a friendly manner, but Rachel knew he was digging.  
"Not too much," Rachel answered, "How was your night with Blaine?"  
"Fine, we had a lovely dinner. How was your night with Finn?" Kurt asked.  
Rachel sighed, "The usual Finn. He asked me to get a place with him in New York this summer."  
Kurt looked surprised and a bit worried, "You didn't say yes, right?"  
"Of course not! So he left me stranded in the restaurant and now he won't leave my phone alone," Rachel told him. Kurt came over and gave her a hug.  
"I'm sorry my step brother is such a thoughtless ogre."  
"It's not your fault," Rachel said as she hugged him back.  
"I was hoping maybe I'd rub off on him," Kurt joked and Rachel smiled. "So did anything else happen last night?"  
Rachel bit her lip, he was still trying to figure out why she was singing with Quinn when he walked in last night. "No, not really."  
Kurt raised his eyebrow, "Really? Is there a reason why I smelled the substance of marijuana as soon as I walked in?"  
"Quinn and Santana had it," Rachel told the truth. It was theirs.  
"Your eyes also looked a little red too, you didn't by chance try it?" Kurt pressed more.  
"It was one mouthful!" Rachel defended herself.  
Kurt smirked, "First of all, don't call it a mouthful. Second of all, I wasn't judging, and third of all, that duet looked and sounded pretty raunchy."  
"We were just singing.." Rachel tried, but Kurt knew better.  
"I know when you're 'just' singing, Rachel Berry. That wasn't 'just' singing. What's going on?" he asked. Rachel was sometimes thankful Kurt knew her better than most people, but other times it was more than a burden because he didn't let things go.  
"I don't know. I really like that song," Rachel answered.  
"Quinn must like it alot too."  
"Yeah..." Rachel trailed off.  
"So much that she came to your room shortly after you went in?" Kurt raised his eyebrow again.  
"She was just thanking me," Rachel tried to explain.  
"It was a pretty long thank you."  
"Maybe some other stuff," Rachel lead on. She was uncomfortable talking about this to Kurt. Probably because she didn't understand it enough to even talk about it.  
"What happened when Quinn came in here? You're usually dying to tell me everything, but you're being so secretive about this. Stop beating around the bush, and spill!" Kurt demanded in a friendly tone.  
"Well," Rachel started, "She told me she slept with Santana."  
"Told you," Kurt said simply.  
"How did you know!?"  
"It's a gay thing," Kurt pushed away the topic as it wasn't important, "What else happened?"  
"She told me she didn't want to sleep with Santana," Rachel said.  
"And?" Kurt knew there was more to the story.  
"She wanted to sleep with me."  
Kurt's mouth dropped open as he gasped. He collected his mouth and thoughts before he spoke. Rachel just looked down at her feet, not wanting to make eye contact. Kurt spoke his thoughts out loud, "Quinn Fabray has a lesbian crush on Rachel Berry?"  
"I guess so," Rachel said, still looking at her feet.  
"And how does this make you feel?" Kurt asked, sounding very professional.  
"I don't know. Normally, I'd probably be happy that somebody was giving me the light of day. But, she's been so awful to me, I just don't know."  
"I see," Kurt nodded.  
"But I offered dinner tonight to talk about things, and she agreed," Rachel explained further.  
"Are you nervous?"  
"A little bit. I don't know what to expect," Rachel shrugged.  
"I'm sure it'll be fine. Just don't expect anything and you'll have nothing to lose," Kurt hugged her again and Rachel held him close. Kurt usually made her feel better. "I'm going out to see Blaine again. Do you need anything?" Rachel shook her head and Kurt got up to leave.  
"Just relax. This is Quinn's chance to prove herself to you. You don't have to do anything but be there to listen to her story," Kurt advised, "See you later tonight."  
Rachel thought about what Kurt had just said and he was right. She didn't owe anything to Quinn right now. It was up to her to make or break this night.

5 o'clock rolled around and Rachel had a very uneventful day so far. She remained in her room the entire time to prevent any awkwardness among the house. She assumed there'd be plenty of that at dinner with Quinn tonight. During that time, her phone went off about a million times from Finn, all saying the same thing with just different words. She ignored them all and knew that Finn was probably freaking out because she would usually reply with something like "I'm sorry Finn, I just really do not think now is the time to talk." But this time, she was exhausted and didn't have the energy to get Finn's hopes up because she really didn't see them being anything in the future. Rachel Berry was over Finn Hudson.  
Not only that, even if she tried to focus on her relationship with Finn she would only go back to Quinn.  
She snuck into the shower and got out before anybody noticed she left her room. Then she moved onto the daunting task of figuring out what to wear. She didn't know if she should wear date material, or we're-friends-going-out-for-dinner material. She looked in her closet for something that might catch her eye.  
Finally, she decided on a red, short dress which would make up for the date material and then went for her favorite pink cardigan that would substitute as friend material. She thought it was a good inbetween. Since it was summer, she decided to not go with any tights, and wear black flats. Rachel then gazed at her plethora of accessories and put on a simple silver necklace with a very small rhinestone at the end and also a pink watch her dads got her for Christmas one year.  
When she was finally done, she took a good look in the mirror. Rachel wasn't sure if she had overdone it, or under done it. Her brunette hair looked nice naturally for once, so she decided not to mess with it. She was afraid if she messed with it any more, it'd look like she tried too hard.  
Rachel took one last look in the mirror and decided that it was this or nothing- and nothing was probably inappropriate for a first date. She glanced at her watch which read 6:47. The brunette took a deep breathe and departed her room.

Quinn was already waiting on the couch. Rachel was relieved to see that the two had similar ideas. She fashioned a light blue polka dotted dress with a black fashion belt. It didn't look like she had bothered with a necklace. Quinn saw Rachel and her face lit up.  
"Hi," she said nervously, "I thought you might ditch me."  
Rachel smiled, "Now that would be very rude, wouldn't it?"  
Quinn smiled back and glanced at her wrist wear a blue watch appeared, "Well, I guess you are seven minutes early. I don't know why I was nervous."  
"I like to be early," Rachel answered, "Also, I love that watch."  
The blonde looked at it, "Thanks. I found it at a thrift shop years ago. But don't tell anybody." She warned.  
"Your secret's safe with me," Rachel voweled, "Should we go?"  
"Yeah, sure! Want to take my car?" Rachel nodded and they left the department.  
The journey to the restraunte was a bit awkward. Rachel didn't know what to say to Quinn, and Quinn didn't bring much to the conversation either. Rachel wondered if this was how the entire night was going to go. Then she reminded herself of what Kurt had told her earlier. That she had nothing to prove to Quinn. So if Quinn cared enough, she would make this night worth while.  
"Where are we going?" Rachel asked.  
"There's this one Thai restaurant I saw once. I thought you might like it," Quinn answered. Rachel smiled, one point for Quinn.  
The place Quinn took them to looked fabulous from the outside and even better when they got inside. It was a tradition Thai menu, which was great for a vegan.  
"What are you going to get?" Quinn asked as they looked at the menu.  
"Well," Rachel started, "There are so many great choices, it's hard to simply choose one. But I think I'm going to go with the Spicy Mango Salad."  
"I didn't know you could handle spicy things," Quinn teased.  
"I assume there's a lot of things you don't know about me, Quinn."  
"I think I know more than you think," Quinn answered with a smirk.  
"Flatter me," Rachel tested.  
"I know that before you sing, you push your hair back behind your ears, even if you fix it a second after. I know that before you eat your food, you do a quick glance to make sure its safe. And I know that when you're nervous, you keep your hands on your lap or hidden." Quinn gestured her eyes to under the table to where Rachel's hands were nicely folded on her lap.  
"That last one doesn't mean anything," Rachel tried to recover her defeat, "It's the proper way."  
Quinn laughed, "Whatever you say.  
"What're you getting?" Rachel changed the subject, slightly surprised that Quinn had noticed so much about her.  
"I think the same as you. I don't eat much Thai food," Quinn admitted.  
"I can't steer you wrong when it comes to vegan food," Rachel bragged. As on que the waiter came and Rachel took it upon herself to order for Quinn, deciding it would just be easier. Plus, she liked the control. Quinn didn't say anything.  
After the waiter left a haze of awkwardness fell upon them. Rachel took a sip of water, trying to distract herself.  
"Spit it out," Quinn finally said.  
"I'm sorry, Quinn," She said after she swallowed, "But that would be terribly rude and probably not that attractive."  
"Not the water," Quinn rolled her eyes, "Go. Ask me anything you want. I know you're dying to ask me."  
Rachel fiddled with her hands that were on her lap, thinking of a proper question to ask. "Why were you so rude to me if you, in your words, wanted to sleep with me?"  
"It's not an excuse, I know, but put yourself in my shoes for a second. What if you discovered you wanted to sleep with that girl that everybody thought you couldn't stand? I mean, I know we're not in high school anymore, but truthfully, I'm having problems getting out of that stage and I shouldn't take it out on you, but I felt like I was letting myself down by having a crush on you," Quinn answered.  
"So it's a bad thing to like me?" Rachel asked.  
"No, no," Quinn said quickly, "I'm not suppose to like girls, Rachel. Ever since I was born I was taught that liking girls was a bad thing. It goes against everything I was ever taught, everything I was ever raised. You should feel accomplished that you broke those barriers."  
Rachel thought about this for a moment. What Quinn was saying did make her heart flutter. Rachel Berry made Quinn Fabray gay.  
"I guess it would be no use to ask you why you never told me," Rachel thought out loud, "So when did you have intercourse with Santana?"  
Quinn laughed, "I don't think it's called intercourse with a girl. But at the wedding."  
"Oh," Rachel thought, "But why is Santana so mean to me? I let her into my home!"  
"I can only speak for Santana as her best friend, but she saw me being mean to you and she decided that's what she needed to do. Don't tell her I said this, but she always has followed me." Rachel laughed, head strong Santana as a follower, "No, I'm serious," Quinn said, "She'd kill me."  
"I don't mean to disappoint you, but I don't think Santana is much of a follower," Rachel told her.  
"There's a reason I was head cheerleader," Quinn said.  
Rachel decided not to argue with her, she was best friends with Santana and there was probably unknown things. "How many times did you sleep with Santana?"  
"Only twice. In the same night."  
"But what about that one night you both came home terribly anberiated?"  
"I fell asleep by the time she got into the room. I didn't want to sleep with her, Rachel." Quinn looked at Rachel in the eyes, so she knew the unsaid words she was trying to get across.  
"It still doesn't explain very well why you were coming around all the time," Rachel said.  
"I felt safe with Santana. I felt like I could be myself around her now that I slept with her. Santana's smart, I think she knew I liked it. And I think she always knew I liked you."  
Rachel thought some more, "Is she going to be jealous?  
Quinn laughed, "Because I like you? No. What we did, was just for fun."  
"Quinn, I don't want to be just for fun."  
The blonde raised her eyebrow, "What are you saying?"  
Rachel's hands were under the table, "If I ever gave this a chance, I can't just be for fun."  
"Of course not," Quinn said, "I couldn't do that to you."  
"That's hard to believe after everything you've done in the past month," Rachel frowned.  
Quinn shook her head, "It's different, Rachel. Now you know. It's different." Just then, the waiter brought them their food. They both thanked him.  
Rachel tried racking her brain for more questions, but couldn't think of any more. Quinn had impressed her with most of her answers, but it still didn't make everything alright. She was still hurt from everything Quinn had done, but she doubted Quinn could say anything more to make all those things alright.  
"So is there anything you wish to ask me?" Rachel finally asked after they silently ate their meal.  
"No," Quinn said simply.  
Rachel was a little surprised, "Are you sure?"  
"You shouldn't have to answer anything. Hell, you shouldn't have even asked me to come to dinner with you."  
Before Rachel could answer, her phone went off. She was suddenly very embarrassed. Never in her life had she ever forgotten to turn off her phone during a dinner. It was probably because of the nerves before it. "I'm so sorry," she said as she dug into her purse to shut it off. She looked at the caller I.D. It would be Finn who would ruin a potential date. But Quinn didn't seem to be bothered by it too much.  
"Finn just won't leave me alone," Rachel said, frustrated.  
"He can get like that," Quinn said and Rachel remembered that once upon a time they had dated.  
"I actually have a confession. I slept with somebody too at the wedding," Rachel told Quinn.  
"Oh, really?" Quinn said, unfazed by this and not pressing anything more.  
"Yes," Rachel nodded, "And I think it was a huge mistake, because then they ask you to move in."  
"That damn boy. He's never going to learn," Quinn said.  
"What do you mean?" asked Rachel.  
"He tried too hard to be that Prince Charming, but it just doesn't work like that," Quinn answered, "Not that I'm trying to shake you off him for me. Just my prior experience."

Rachel smiled, knowing exactly what Quinn was saying. Maybe, Quinn was different and telling the truth about everything. She decided questions for Quinn were done and they could move onto a less tense part of the dinner. "So, how's school?" She changed the subject.

The two talked the rest of the dinner about meaningless things and caught up with each other. In fact, they weren't done talking yet, so Rachel suggested they take a walk around the city. Ever since she moved there she rarely had time to just walk like a tourist. It didn't matter how many times she visited the place, the lights still amazed her. It felt new to her every time.

As they walked, they still talked. They pointed out things to each other that they really liked. They people watched and laughed at some of the tourists. They even ducked into some cheesy tourist shops just for fun.

"Hey! You should get this," Rachel pointed at something in one of the cheesy shops. Quinn went over to look. It was a statue of Liberty holding a camera.

"You still like to take pictures, right?" Rachel asked, remembering how Quinn had volunteered to take pictures for the yearbook and such. It was something not a lot of people knew about Quinn, but Rachel tended to know things about people that others didn't't.

"I haven't for awhile. Nothing really to take pictures of, I guess," Quinn shrugged.  
Rachel got an idea, "Here. I'll buy this for you. And next time you visit, you have to take pictures of this little thing all around the Yale campus. It'll be like you brought New York City back with you." Quinn laughed and agreed.  
They finished the night, both tired of walking and into Quinn's car. Once they arrived back at the apartment it seemed like Santana and Kurt were both in their rooms. The brunette and blonde walked up the apartment building, both secretly wondering what would come next.  
"Thanks, Rachel. For giving me a chance," Quinn told her once they were in the apartment, "Even if you still don't want anything to do with me, which I don't blame you, I still had a lot of fun tonight."  
Rachel smiled, "I did too, Quinn." They both sort of looked at each other, not knowing what to next.  
"I guess I'll go to bed now. I'm going to leave early tomorrow, I have some last minute projects to finish up." Quinn told her and started walking towards Santana's room.  
"Quinn," Rachel finally said, "It's already 1 in the morning. I wouldn't want to bother a sleeping Santana. Why don't you sleep in my room tonight?" Rachel bit her lip after the offer, part of her slightly wishing she could take the offer back thinking it was too much. But Quinn looked happier than ever to say yes.  
They both settled into Rachel's bed. "Thanks again, Rachel." Quinn said while they were laying down.  
Rachel grabbed Quinn's hand under the sheets, "Thank you, too." Rachel looked at Quinn, it seemed as if there faces were only inches away. She felt like she wanted to be closer, as close as she could be to the lips that only spoke nice things of her tonight. But a knock at the door interrupted these thoughts. "Come in!" Rachel yelled.  
"Berry, do you," Santana came in the room and saw the blonde and brunette in the same bed. She smirked, "Oh."  
"Hi," Rachel said nervously, "Can I help you?"  
"Nope. I'm just gonna go back to bed. I was looking for Quinn, but it seems to me as if she's in good hands," Santana winked.  
"Good night," Quinn told her.  
"Night," she started to leave, but before she left she peeked her head around the door before she closed it, "If you need any tips, you know where I am." She winked.  
Quinn and Rachel laughed to clear the air of awkwardness.  
"You can always count on Santana," Quinn laughed.  
Rachel just looked at Quinn again, content for once in her life. Not thinking about what would come next. She was tired and ready to go to sleep, but before she drifted off for the night she wanted to tell Quinn one last thing, "Thanks for giving me a reason."


	5. Chapter 5

_I'm sorry this is a shorter chapter, but I felt like this little filler/talk/clear things up chapter needed to be included. Thanks for all the follows/reviews and such. It's what keeps me writing and means the world to me._

Rachel woke up to the sound of Fergie singing how she is so Fergalicious. When she first opened her eyes, her initial thought was, What the hell. Although Rachel appreciated Fergie's top 40 songs in 2007, it would be incredibly unhip to have an outdated song playing in 2013. Not that Rachel had a problem with older music, but there's a period in a song's life where it's really popular, but then it goes to being lame and old if you listen to the song. And then one day it becomes a timeless classic. Fergalicious had not become a timeless classic yet.  
But as Rachel regained consciousness, she realized that somehow during the night Quinn and Rachel had become intertwined in each others presence. Rachel then looked over at the sleeping blonde and realized that the noise was coming from her cell phone. It must have been her alarm clock.  
"Quinn," she softly shook her out of her sleeping state, "I think your alarm is going off." Rachel didn't mind that the alarm had interrupted her slumber. Last night when she turned her phone off during the dinner, she forgot to turn it back on later that night. Therefore, her usual ritual of waking up at 6am for a morning workout on Sundays had been soiled. It was only 8 now, and it did feel nice to sleep in for once.  
Quinn sleepily looked at Rachel, then looked suddenly embarrassed that her arms were wrapped around her. She quickly pulled away, "Sorry," she mumbled.  
"It's perfectly okay. But I think you wanted to leave early, and that's your incredibly old alarm going off," Quinn told her.  
The blonde looked at her phone and muted the alarm, "Sorry," she apologized again.  
"Stop apologizing," Rachel ordered.  
"So-," Quinn started then frowned, "Sor-," She sighed, "Please forgive me."  
Rachel smiled, "Stop." Quinn looked like she was about to apologize again, but Rachel stopped her, "How'd you sleep?"  
"Fine. You don't take up as much room as Santana," she said.  
"I will add that to my list of accomplishments," Rachel said proudly.  
Quinn bit her lip, "Are you alright?" Her hair was still messy due to the bed and her makeup had slightly started to smear. Rachel couldn't take her eyes off of her. It was hard to believe that this Quinn Fabray, this incredibly hot, Quinn Fabray was in her bed.  
Rachel was confused, "What do you mean?"  
"I didn't mean to," Quinn searched for the right words, "Invade your personal space while you slept."  
"Really, Quinn, don't worry. As I've said before I've slept with Finn before. He's a sorry excuse for an ogre."  
Quinn laughed.  
"Not one of my proudest moments," Rachel thought.  
"I guess," Quinn started to say, but then trailed off, "Nevermind."  
"No, you can tell me, Quinn," Rachel and Quinn were still under the covers, Rachel took her hand and reached out to Quinn's.  
"No, I shouldn't. You don't owe me anything," Quinn shook her head.  
"Quinn, you've been more than open with me in the past day that I assume you've ever our been with anybody in your life. Even if I don't owe it to you, I still want to," Rachel assured her.  
"That's just it. You've been listening to me talk about my feelings for you the entire day, and you haven't really said anything to me about how you feel. Not that you owe it to me or anything," Quinn said defensively, making sure Rachel knew that she didn't expect anything, "But you're usually a very easy person to read, no offense, but the past day I've been racking my brain to try and get an insight on how you feel and I just can't," Quinn gathered her thoughts for a moment, "I just don't want to make you uncomfortable."  
"You're not making me uncomfortable," Rachel said simply.  
"See?" Quinn pointed out, "What am I making you feel though?" Quinn thought about what she had just said, "Wait, you don't have to answer that if you don't want to."  
Rachel thought for a good moment, "I don't know." Quinn only nodded, "I honestly wish I could give you an answer, Quinn. But I don't know. I'm flattered that you have a crush on me, really, I am. It's one of the most delightful news I have ever received, but it's something I never even considered. Last night, you told me to put myself in your shoes, now do the same for me. You were Queen Bee Quinn in High School. I was Broadway Geek Berry. Somehow you and I ended up in the same club and even that to me was unbelievable." Rachel sighed, "I think people like to think that I dream big and that I know I can conquer anything, but I have doubts too, you know."  
"You always just seem like you consider every possibility though and always have a plan of action," Quinn told her.  
"It is true that I do have an overactive imagination and do like to have a course of action for any scenario that I may encounter, but you win. You caught me off guard. I never thought about being gay, well, I will admit that I have thought about having an open relationship with Bernadette Peters if she insisted, but nothing I ever thought would actually happen. Girls don't usually like me," Rachel admitted, "Think about it. Most of my friends are men, because girls are not able to relate to me. I got use to it after awhile, but why do I think i was so flattered when you said we were sort of friends? Because I don't have a lot of lady friends." Quinn looked like she was understanding some of the things about Rachel Berry.  
"I'm scared, Quinn," Rachel said quieter than the rest, "I'm scared because I don't know how I feel because I don't know if this is real."  
Rachel felt Quinn squeeze her hand, "This is real."  
"Well then," Rachel squeezed her hand back, "I suppose a good actress is always suppose to accept new and interesting opportunities. It would be very rude of me to not pursue you or give you a chance."  
"Yeah, sure. After how rude I've been to you? I don't think ignoring me would shed light on that," Quinn told her.  
"Believe me, it would," Rachel assured.  
"Why? You're being already giving me the light of day and I'm just a blonde bitch bully who made your life horrible for a few years."  
"Because," Rachel looked directly into Quinn's eyes, "You're so much more than that."  
Quinn was looking back into Rachel's eyes, a slight smile curled on her lips and it almost looked like her eyes were wetting. She was torn out of her trance and got up to start to get ready. It seemed as if she couldn't find the right words to say. Finally, she looked down at her feet then back at Rachel.  
"Thank you, Rachel. It means more to me than you know."

Quinn had left soon after that, telling Rachel she'd be back on Friday. Rachel told her she looked forward to seeing her, and then they both just stared awkwardly at each other before Quinn finally made the move to walk out the apartment door.  
As the week went by she made it appoint to text Quinn at least once a day, and Quinn always replied. Sometimes, she'd even reply with a picture message of the statue of liberty somewhere on the campus. One time she sent one and the statue was chilling by her laptop, which was on a screen of a paper Quinn looked to be working hard on. Another time the statue was sitting on one of Quinn's class book and the caption read, "Study group!" Then two hours later she received another picture of the statute by a glass of whine. This time the caption read, "Studying got boring." All through the week Quinn and Rachel kept in contact with each other and talked more than they ever had. Everytime Quinn's name popped up on Rachel's phone, her heart fluttered a bit and suddenly, opening that text message was one of the most important and exciting things in her life.  
Rachel was lounging in her room, doing some last minute studying for her finals that were coming up shortly. Her door opened, it was Santana.  
"Welcome, Santana. Please come in," Rachel said sarcastically.  
Santana rolled her eyes, "Listen, Rachel. I have to talk to you about something serious. Which is something I wish I didn't have to." Ever since Rachel had her date/whatever night with Quinn, Santana had been noticeably nicer to her. Off course, Santana was always going to be sort of a bitch, but Rachel guessed that Quinn was right. Santana was sort of a follower when it came to Quinn.  
"Say whatever you need to say," Rachel told her. She assumed she knew what this was about.  
"So I know you and Quinn are discovering your inner lesbian feelings for eachother right now, which is no shock to me since I've known since 9th grade. But let's get something straight, which might be weird for you right now, I know, but bare with me." Rachel frowned at Santana's joke. "If you hurt Quinn, I'll hurt you. Quinn doesn't get her hopes up much anymore, but I have feeling she is about this. If you decide you don't want to be lezzie Berry, tell her now, because I can't sit here and watch her hurt over something again. You might have never seen the hurting Quinn, but I have. Trust me, it's not a pretty state."  
Rachel frowned again, "Why should I listen to anything you say when you've been a bitch to me ever since you moved in here? I'm not saying I'm not listening to what you're saying, but it doesn't seem fair to me for you to tell me what to do when you didn't care about me at all."  
Santana kept her stone glare, "Are you really going to make me apologize?"  
Rachel nodded.  
Santana sighed, "If you ever tell anybody I'm doing this, I will kill you. No matter how much Quinn loves you." Rachel kept staring at her. Santana took a deep breathe, "I'm sorry, Rachel Berry, for being a bitch to you the entire time I lived in your apartment."  
"And?" Rachel asked.  
"What?" Rachel just stared, Santana rolled her eyes, "And I'm sorry that I didn't tell Quinn to lay off."  
"Thank you, Santana. But why?" Rachel asked.  
"Really?" Santana asked, "I don't know. I thought us three rooming together felt like high school, but this time you were better than me. You go to class everyday, doing your acting thing, and I just sit in my room all day, thinking about what I'm going to do. Plus, Quinn was being a bitch to you, so I thought you did something wrong."  
"Santana, you're going to do something great, and you know it," Rachel told her.  
"I don't understand you," Santana said.  
"What do you mean?"  
"How can you sit there and be nice to me when I basically told you how much I hate to see you succeed?"  
Rachel shrugged, "I'm very against grudges. And I believe everybody can do something great, especially you."  
"You don't even know me."  
"That is true, but I do know about this conversation we just had. And from it, I know you're a very caring, pretty, girl with a great voice. Girls would kill to be you, and you know it."  
Santana flipped her hair, "I am pretty fabulous."  
Rachel laughed at Santana defense from letting somebody in, "You are. And you're going to do something fabulous."  
Santana gave Rachel a sincere smile, "Thanks, Rachel. Start over?"  
Rachel smiled, "I'd really like that."  
"Cool," Santana said, "Do you want to go get something for dinner then?"  
"Yeah! That'd be lovely!" Rachel smiled, putting her book up and getting up. The two started to walk out.  
"And remember, this isn't a date. If Quinn thought I was trying to steal her girlfriend..." Santana trailed off.  
"We're not dating!" Rachel said, defensively.  
"Sure, whatever you say," Santana smirked.  
"We're not!"  
"Yet," Santana smirked, "And if you ever want to have a three-sum, I wouldn't say no." Rachel playfully hit Santana as they left the apartment for a friendly dinner.


	6. Chapter 6

_Warning: This chapter has evidence of mocking Kurtana. I'm so sorry. I don't even know if that's a real thing, but I had fun playing around with it in a very JOKING way. I'm sorry if it takes away from the story. This chapter was mainly about some cute fluff and also setting up a plot line. I hope you like it. Thanks for the follows/favorites/reviews, it's what keeps me writing._

_P.S I try really hard to stay away from singing in Glee fics, but sometimes I just can't help myself. I feel like it's the only fic acceptable to sing your feelings. _

_Song: I won't Say I'm in Love - Hercules. _

Rachel sat anxiously in the apartment's living room on Friday, awaiting the arrival of Quinn. She had called Rachel the moment she left Yale campus to let her know she was on the way. During the week Rachel had done a lot of thinking, and that thinking included Quinn most of the time. Something about her, something about the date whatever they had gave her a charming vibe. Something about Quinn Fabray liking her made her heart tingle when she thought about it.  
"Girl, staring at that door isn't going to make her show up any faster," Kurt told her as he sat at the kitchen table, drinking a cup of coffee at four in the afternoon. For some reason, he seemed more stressed than usual this week and Rachel really hadn't seen a lot of him.  
Rachel was sitting on the couch with her laptop, pretending to study for a final, "I'm not staring at the door, Kurt. Staring is bad for the eyes."  
Kurt smirked, "Please, that's all you've been doing for the past five minutes until I said something."  
"No, it was certainly not," Rachel defended, "I am studying for a very important final."  
"Does that final include Quinn Fabray's pants?" Kurt asked, smugly.  
Rachel looked offended, "No, it does not, thank you very much. It is a very important final on the history of American Broadway."  
Kurt smirked, "I'm sure."  
"It is!"  
"Ah, young love," He said as he took a sip of coffee. Rachel huffed and continued to mindlessly look at her laptop.  
The door to the apartment opened a few moments later and in Quinn walked with her usual pink duffle bag filled with clothes for the weekend, and a backpack that was filled with books. Rachel immediately put her laptop down and ran over to her to hug her. At first Quinn was a bit suprised, but was soon delighted with the sense of Rachel's hug and hugged her tightly. Kurt watched the entire thing with a smile on his face.  
"Hi," Rachel finally said after they broke apart from the hug.  
"Hello to you too," Quinn smiled.  
"How was the drive?" Rachel asked.  
"Fine, is it nerdy that I listened to one of my texts books on tape up here?" Quinn joked.  
"Not at all," Rachel beamed, "Academics are very important." Quinn smiled. Just then, Rachel's ringer went off. "Oh, sorry. I have to get this, I'm expecting a call from..." Her voice trailed off as she looked at the caller I.D. She frowned. The number didn't have a New York area code, rather a Lima, Ohio area code. She knew who it was, and wasn't happy about it. She angrily answered the call. Kurt looked at Quinn, "Isn't she cute when she's angry?" Quinn embarrassedly smiled in agreement.  
"Finn Hudson, if you think you can trick me by calling me with another phone, then you must have been dating a different Rachel Berry all through High School. I do not wish to speak to you and I thought you would have gotten the hint..." She was interrupted.  
"Rachel Berry?" Said a familiar voice on the other side.  
Rachel was puzzled, "Who is this?"  
"Will Schuester. Hi," he said.  
"Mr. Schu!? I'm flattered to hear from you and all but how did you even get my number?" Rachel asked.  
"Um," he stuttered, "Finn gave it to me."  
"Mr. Schu, I think that is highly inappropriate," Rachel scolded him.  
"You're not my student anymore, it's completely okay. Anyway, how's New York treating you?" He tried to make friendly conversation.  
"Great! It's really nice up here," Rachel told him.  
"That's wonderful. Anyway, I had a favor to ask you."  
"Mr. Schu, I'm not in any Broadway productions yet, I'm sorry I can't give you a good word," Rachel assumed his favor.  
Will chuckled, "No, no. And please, call me Will," Rachel wasn't sure about this, Mr. Sh..Will, would always be her semi-inappropriate, but decently talented music instructor. "Do you plan on coming back to Lima anytime soon?" He asked.

"Not that I had planned," Rachel told him, "Finals are coming up and I've been pretty busy."

"Oh," he said, sounding disappointed.

"Why?" Rachel asked.

"It's just that we made it to Nationals!" He told her, Rachel already knew this. Finn had mentioned it to her when he visited, "And the entire school is having a pep rally for us!" Rachel had wondered how he had swung this and felt a bit bad for the Glee members. The school would most definitely not appreciate the musical talent and make fun of the club. She, herself had been in that position too many times to know any better. No matter how badly she wanted to think that it would ever change.

But, Rachel didn't want to bring down his spirits, "That's really great! I'm proud of all of you."

"Thanks," Will said, "But this year, we're lacking the chemistry. And I honestly think that's what won it for us the first time. So I was wondering if maybe, if you were available could come as a special guest and sing a duet with Finn during the pep rally. To you know, give the club a taste of what chemistry is like. You two always have the best chemistry."

Rachel immediately rejected the idea. She could not go back to her high school, sing a song with Finn Hudson like they were still in Glee club. Not only would the performance lack chemistry and energy and would not be the performance Mr. Shu was expecting, but it would give Finn hopes. And then the dream of him ever leaving her alone would be completely smashed. "So what do you say? Do you think you can make a special trip down?" Rachel heard the pleading in his voice, she wanted to say yes because she remembered how much faith he always had in her. Mr. Schu had done a lot for her during her high school career, and she deeply wished she could pay him back. But this was just not a reasonable way.

Rachel was searching around the room, thinking somewhere she'd find help on how to politely turn him down. She glanced at Quinn, who was sitting at the table with Kurt drinking a cup of coffee, and she had the perfect solution.

"Do I have to sing with Finn?" She asked.

"Well, no," Mr. Schu seemed confused, "But who else would you sing with?"

"Quinn Fabray," Rachel told him confidently.

"Um," Mr. Schu thought. Rachel could tell he wasn't sure where this idea had come from. Rachel and Quinn rarely sang duets together and were barely friends. He probably didn't understand how chemistry could come out of this performance. But Rachel thought back to the night they had sang karaoke together and the feeling after that was unlike any feeling she ever had after singing with Finn. Sure, the effects might have been enhanced with the use of drugs (Which Rachel tried to forget about most times) but she was sure she could recreate that feeling at Lima High School.

"Don't worry, Mr. Schu. I promise a performance you'll never forget," Rachel assured him.

"Well, I mean, you've never given me a reason to not trust you, Rachel. I believe in you," he told her.

"And you never will," Rachel smiled.

"Okay. I'll send you the details. It's next Friday. Can I have your e-mail?" He asked and Rachel tied up all the loose ends of the phone call. Once they were done, Mr. Schu thanked her again and hung up.

"Were you talking to Mr. Schu on the phone?" Quinn asked after she put the phone down.

"Yes," Rachel answered.

"Pervert," Kurt muttered.

"What did he want?" Quinn asked.

Rachel decided to answer with a question, "What are you doing next Friday?"

"Probably coming here," Quinn shrugged.

"Would you maybe want to make a trip to Lima?" Rachel suggested.

Quinn frowned, "Well, it wouldn't be my first choice. Why?" Rachel sat down at the table with Quinn and Kurt and explained the conversation she had just had with William Schuester on the phone.

"And you want to sing with me?" Quinn seemed a bit baffled.

"Yes," Rachel nodded.

Quinn bit her lip, "I'm not so sure about that."

"Why not?" Rachel asked.

"It's been almost a year since I've performed on an actual stage. Plus, singing with you in front of the entire school, I mean, talk about coming out."

"I love the idea," Kurt smiled. Rachel and Quinn looked at him, "What? It's better than being pushed out of the closet."

"See!" Rachel said, excitedly, "Would you rather a rumour be spreading about you being gay or do you want to embrace it?"

"Rachel, we haven't even talked about 'us'. No offense, but I don't want to come out if I don't have to," Quinn said.

Rachel pleaded with her eyes, "Please, Quinn? It would mean a whole lot to me."

Quinn sighed, "I guess I do sort of owe you."

"Exactly! And it'll be great for the Glee club! It'll be like us giving back to all the happy years we spent there."

"I wouldn't say they were all happy," Kurt chirped.

"Well, most of them," Rachel thought. "Hey! You and Blaine should sing too!"

"Sing where?" Santana had just came out her room. She had been showering and getting ready for the day.

"The Glee club back in Lima is having a pep rally for Nationals," Rachel explained, "Quinn and I are singing."

"Well, I guess that'll reenforce the gay stereotype," Santana said.

Rachel ignored the comment, "You and Brittany could sing too! You and here always had great chemistry!"

"Whoa, chica. I'm not sure she'd be up with that. Besides, she probably has a duet lined up with Sam already," Santana told her, also taking a seat at the kitchen table.

"Yeah, Rachel. I don't think Mr. Schu wants the old timer Glee clubbers to take over the pep rally, anyway. I mean, isn't it all about them anyway?" Kurt said.

"Please, we invented that Glee Club," Rachel said.

"And there's that big head we learn to love," Santana said quietly.

"No, no. I'm sure Mr. Schue would love for everybody to sing. I'll e-mail him tonight. It'll be like an old Glee Club assignment! We'll have to start thinking of songs and everything!" Rachel was getting excited about this. Quinn, Kurt, and Santana silently groaned but decided to be excited for the sake of Rachel.

"Okay, fine," Santana agreed. Rachel could see she was trying to not be excited about this, but something in her eyes told her that Santana was excited to perform on the McKinley stage again. "But all this talk of singing is making me hungry. Do you guys wanna go get something for dinner?"

"Ohhh!" Kurt squealed, "Like an awkward double date!"

Quinn and Rachel blushed. But Santana spoke up, "You don't even like girls."

"You don't even like boys," Kurt retaliated.

Santana quirked her head at him, "True. One rule though, don't try to wine and dine me. It'll get you nowhere."

"Please, do you think I'd ever lower my standards to a women?" Kurt pretended to flip his hair. They all laughed at this, and got up to leave the apartment. Before the left, Quinn and Rachel gave each other a smile, both happy that things were looking up.

On the ride over to the restaurant, Kurt and Santana were talking about gays and lesbians.

"Girls are just so difficult, I could never date one," Kurt said.

"That is true, not because we're difficult. But because you gay men are too high maintenance," Santana snarked back.

Kurt looked appalled, "That is not true. I could totally date a girl if I was a fan of the genitals. I almost dated Mercedes sophomore year, remember?"

"Yeah, but you didn't. Face it, Hummel. You couldn't even go on a date with a girl," Santana rolled her eyes.

"Yeah, because your dates with men are so great," Kurt rolled her eyes back.

"They are," Santana said back.

"Please, Finn told me about your little 'date' with him. You don't know how to properly date a man," Kurt told her.

"Maybe if Finn wasn't such a dense oaf he would have had a better time," Santana told him.

"Or maybe if you weren't such a lesbian," Kurt smirked.

"Okay, that's it, diva. Tonight, you and I are on a date. The entire night. So try and keep up," Santana challenged him.

"Flatter me, Santana. You won't be able to last 10 minutes without making me want to run away back to my Vogue magazine."

"Oh, dear," Santana said sarcastically as she pinched Kurt's cheek, "You're so cute when you try to act like you're a fashion designer."

"Hunny," Kurt said back in the same tone, "I must be the best actor in the world then." Quinn and Rachel who were sitting the front seat and laughed, knowing this would be an entertaining night.

Once they got to the restaurant, Quinn and Rachel were anxious to get out of the car and away from Kurt and Santana's bickering. But when they stepped out of the car, Santana refused to get out. Quinn opened the driver's door again.

"Santana, what are you doing?"

She folded her arms against her chest, "Waiting for my date to open the door for me."

Kurt heard this and rolled his eyes and walked over to her door, opened it and bowed in her presence, "Sorry, my love, I was so baffled by your beauty I completely forgot my manners. Please forgive me."

Santana walked out of the car, "It's okay, I suppose. Just don't let it happen again. Do you know who I am?"

"You can't do that!" Kurt broke character.

"Why not?" Santana asked.

"Because it's not polite or very date like!" Kurt told her.

"Girls are allowed to walk all over their date," Santana shrugged.

"Maybe rude ones!"

"I'm playing hard to get, keep up. Or are you falling behind already?" Santana asked. Kurt sighed and walked into the restaurant.

When they reached the table, Kurt was sure to pull Santana chair out for her before she complained. All four of them looked over the menu. Kurt reached over the table and lightly touched Santana's wrist, "What are you getting babe?"

"I'm in the mood for a nice steak," She said.

Kurt frowned, "Maybe you should go with the salad."

Santana stared at Kurt for a moment, "You're funny."

"Not very date like!" Kurt pointed out.

"I am not jeopardizing my meal because of a fake date," Santana pointed out, angrily.

"I guess you can't handle the heat," Kurt said, smugly, thinking he won.

"Fine," Santana suddenly agreed, "Then you can't get some fruity gay drink then."

Kurt gasped, then composed himself, "You know what, honey buns, why don't you get whatever your little, cold heart desires." Santana smirked and continued to look at the menu.

The night when on with the bickering, and really went downhill when the waiter came and Kurt tried to order for Santana.

"That's not even how I like my steak OR the sides I wanted!" She interrupted him, "Please ignore him. He's been acting a bit funny lately," And she went on to ordering her steak.

Halfway through the meal they were all talking about old Glee club memories, and Kurt may have made a comment on how Santana looked trashy in one of her outfits she wore for a performance. Santana, suddenly got very angry and started to make a list on the napkin of ever gay piece of clothing he ever wore for a performance that should only be put on a woman's body. Rachel and Quinn started laughing so hard that Quinn dropped her fork onto Rachel's skirt and salad dressing started to spread all over it.

"I'm so sorry!" Quinn apologized, picking up a napkin and trying to dab it.

"It's fine," Rachel tried to play it off, "But I think I'd better use a wet towel for this." Rachel started to get up to go to the restroom.

"I'll help," Quinn said as she got up to follow her.

"Well," Rachel heard Kurt talking to Santana as she was walking away, "At least we haven't spilled food on each other yet."

"Don't hold your breathe," Santana told him.

"Don't you dare, this is very fragile material!" And Santana and him started bickering again. Rachel was slightly afraid to leave them alone.

When the two entered the bathroom, Quinn went to get a paper towel and wetted it. She walked back over to Rachel and started dabbing the splotch she had made.

"You don't have to do that," Quinn told her.

"Of course I do. It was my fault," she said as she continued to dab the spot. After a few moments, she laughed out of the blue.

"What's so funny?" Rachel asked.

"It's just funny, I guess. And ironic. I never spilt something on a boy during a date, but even if I did, I couldn't help them clean it off in the bathroom," Quinn chuckled.

"Is this a date?" Rachel asked. The moment Quinn had said 'date' her heart fluttered.

"Well," Quinn seemed to suddenly be embarrassed, "I mean, no if you don't want it to..." She trailed off, waiting to get some indication of what Rachel was feeling through her facial expression.

But Rachel kept a straight stare at Quinn, but finally said, "No. I want it to be. I would be delighted to be on a date with you, Quinn." Quinn finished up dabbing the spot and stood up fully to look at Rachel in the eyes. Their heads were close, and Rachel could feel the gap between them closing. Her heart was pumping, she wasn't sure what kissing a girl would be like. But before she could find out, the door opened.

"Fucking Hummel, how could you...Oh," It was Santana and she obviously knew what she had walked in on. "I can leave if you want. But bathroom sex isn't all that classy."

Quinn turned her head and looked at Santana, "No, we were just finishing up."

"The sex?" Santana asked, and Quinn blushed. Santana obviously enjoyed making her feel awkward.

"Do you enjoy this?" Rachel asked.

"You don't even know," Santana smirked as the three of them walked back out of the bathroom.

Once they returned back to the apartment, Quinn and Rachel resided to her room to search for a song to sing.  
"Let's just sing, 'I kissed a Girl'," Quinn suggested, frustrated with the search that was going nowhere.  
"Quinn, I can't even begin to explain how unclassy that is," Rachel frowned.  
"Fine. How about 'Dirty Little Secret'?" Quinn said, Rachel looked offended, "I'm kidding!" Quinn told her.  
"I would hope so," Rachel said, going back to the search. A knock at the door came, and before giving an answer, Kurt and Santana walked in.  
"This better not be about who's coming out story was better," Quinn rolled her eyes.  
"No, it's..." Santana was interrupted by Rachel.  
"Shhh! Listen! I forgot all about this song!" Rachel pressed play on her laptop and a familiar tune rang out. She started to sing.

_If there's a prize for rotten judgement _

_I guess I've already won that._

_No man is worth the aggravation_

_That's ancient history, been there, done that._

And then, as if they were just waiting for it, Kurt and Santana started to sing, who looked amused with the song. Quinn on the other hand, looked like this was the most cheesiest thing she had ever heard.

_Who'd ya think you're kidding_

_She's the Earth and Heaven to you_

_Try to keep it hidden_

_Honey, we can right through you_

_Girl, ya can't conceal it _

_We know how ya feel and_

_Who you're thinking of_

Rachel sang again, trying to egg Quinn on to sing with her. But Quinn kept her lips tight, trying to hide a smile.

_No chance, no way_

_I won't say it, no, no_

Kurt and Santana had obviously gotten the memo, because they seemed like they were having a ball with the song.

_You swoon, you sigh_  
_Why deny it? Uh oh_

Quinn smiled at them, then sighed. Rachel knew she was giving in.

_It's too cliche_  
_I won't say I'm in love_

Rachel smiled back at Quinn when she heard her sing, Quinn jokily rolled her eyes and continued to sing.

_I thought my heart had learned it's lesson_  
_It feels so good when you start out_

Rachel cut in for the next part.

_My head is screaming get a grip, girl_  
_Unless you're dying to cry your heart out_

Kurt and Santana were still smiling as they sang their part.

_You keep on denying_

_Who you are and how you're feeling_

_Baby, we're not buying_

_Hon, we saw ya hit the ceiling_

_Face it like a grown-up_

_When ya gonna own up_

_That ya got, got, got it bad_

At this point, everybody in the room was excited and happy to be singing such a classic song from their childhood. Quinn and Rachel started to sing together.

_You're way off base_

_I won't say it_

_Get off my case_

_I won't say it_

Kurt and Santana smirked at each other.

_Girl, don't be proud_

_It's okay. You're in love._

Quinn and Rachel gave each other one last look and smiled as they sang together.

_At least out loud_

_I won't say I'm in love_

The song ended and the quartet all laughed.

"What was that?" Santana asked, still laughing.

"A very lovely rendition of a real life musical. Breaking out into song," Kurt joked.

"Maybe we should sing that," Quinn laughed.

Rachel smiled as she shook her head, "That would be way too tacky. And not even tasteful tackiness. Just tacky."

"Well," Santana started, "I think that's the theme of the pep rally." Quinn and Rachel just looked at her. "I just got off the phone with Britt to see if she'd sing with me. And she told me the glee club wanted us to join in their group number."

"That'd be fun!" Rachel squealed, "What is it?"

"That's the problem," She tried to say what it was, but started laughing, "Oh God. I can't even say it. I feel bad too, because I think it was Britt's idea."

"Spit it out!" Quinn told her.

She muffled her laugh enough to tell them, "They're doing 'We're All in This Together' from High School musical."

Kurt gasped and covered his mouth, "Oh, good God, you're not serious."

"You're joking," Quinn said.

"I'm not. Britt said it was a number that everybody could relate to and really sums up McKinley." Santana told them.

They all looked at Rachel because they knew she was dying to say something. But instead all she said, "Well, how do get the choreography?"

"What?" Kurt looked shocked, "You're not upset that they're ruining their pep rally with the most tacky musical ever invented?"  
"Of course I am not happy that they will be performing a number from a musical that almost ruined broadway, but they do have a point. If they did a bunch of absurd broadway numbers, they'd lose their audience."  
"So you're saying they won't be the laughing stock of the school for doing a High School Musical number?" Santana asked.  
"No, they probably will. But at least they'll know what's going on. Besides, it's probably too late to talk them out of it now."  
"True," Santana agreed, "Britt seemed really into it. And you know me, if Britt thinks a good idea- then I'm in."  
Kurt sighed, "As long as it doesn't become a viral video."  
"What about you, Quinn?" Rachel asked, "Will you do the number with us?"  
"You're really pushing the envelope with this performing thing," Quinn sort of joked, "But it's getting harder and harder to say no to you." Rachel smiled at her.  
"Oh my God, please, not in front of me. Watching you two is like watching two kittens who have no clue what they're doing," Santana covered her eyes with her hands.  
"Don't listen to her. You're both adorable," Kurt patted Rachel's shoulder. Sometimes, she forgot Quinn was not her only company tonight.  
"Anyway, so how do we learn?" Quinn asked.  
"They want to Skype us," Satana told them.  
"I'll be back in school though," Quinn said.  
"I guess you'll have to skype from there," Santana shrugged.  
"Are you kidding? If my roommate sees me dancing to high school musical..." She glanced over at Rachel, who still had her pleading eyes. "I'll risk it for you guys."  
"Or your lezzie lover," Santana smirked.  
"You have no filter, do you?" Kurt smacked her.  
"You learn to love it," She smiled.  
For the rest of the night the four hung out in Rachel's room, listening and singing songs together. Then, finally, Kurt and Santana decided it was time to leave. Or as Santana said, Rachel and Quinn needed their sexy time.  
"You know," Rachel said after Kurt and Santana left, "I really do like singing with you."  
"Thanks," Quinn smiled.  
"I always thought you had a lovely voice," Rachel complemented her.  
"That means alot coming from you," Quinn told her.

"Why?" Rachel asked, she didn't understand why that would mean anything more from her than anybody else. Tons of people had probably told her that.

"Because, you're the best singer I know. Never in my life did I think I'd be able to sing with you once we left high school and you were doing your broadway thing. Who knows, maybe one day I'll be able to tell the world I sang with the famous Rachel Berry."

"Or maybe," Rachel bit her lip, "You'll be able to tell them you kissed her?" Rachel was suddenly very close to Quinn's face again. Quinn looked shocked at this statement. Never did she expect for Rachel to say something like that to her. Never did she expect for Rachel to make the first move. Rachel didn't expect it either. But something about Quinn made her want to take control. Quinn was still staring at Rachel, not sure what to do. But finally, she made up her mind. She started to move her blonde head in more until her soft lips brushed against Rachel's. Rachel kissed her back and wasn't surprised that her lips were amazing as the sound that came out of them when she sang.

It was a short kiss, but it did it's justice. Rachel felt reborn as she pulled away. This didn't feel like the first time she kissed Finn, or even the first time she ever kissed a boy, which was in the 6th grade. (It's a very long and dramatic story, and if you want to hear about it, you can ask her later so she can have time to prepare the dramatics for it.) This kiss felt right. It didn't feel awkward as it did often times with first kisses. Now, she felt even more connected with Quinn. Something in here told her this whole thing was right where she needed to be.

"I guess I can," Quinn finally said and broke out into a smile. Rachel smiled with her and kissed her again.


	7. Chapter 7

_Another short chapter, but it sets up a good time line for the pep rally I think. Also, I'm really sorry for any mistakes that may occur in this chapter. I'm extremely tired but I really wanted to post this for all the lovely followers that take time to read this. Again, thanks for all the reviews and whatnot, it's what keeps me writing._ _I check my e-mail constantly and read every single one of them that deal with this fic. You're all awesome._

Saturday was spent very much the same as Friday. Quinn and Rachel stayed in her room for most of the day, still looking for a song to sing at the pep rally. And when they did finally decide on a song, then they spent the day practicing.  
They sat on Rachel's bed, taking a quick breather from the practice. They both opened a water bottle and took a sip. They sat in silence for a few moments, until Quinn broke it.  
"Do you think Finn asked Mr. Schu to do that?"  
"To sing at the pep rally with him? I wouldn't put it past him."  
"Are you still ignoring his calls?" Quinn asked.  
"Yes," Rachel said, taking another sip of the water.  
"You know you're going to see him at the pep rally, right?" Quinn asked, she almost looked worried.  
"I know," Rachel said.  
"He's not going to, you know," Quinn bit her lip, "Change your mind."  
Rachel turned her head to look at Quinn, "Of course not. Why would you think that?"  
"I don't know. I get stressed easily," Quinn said, suddenly embarrassed, "I'm sorry I brought it up."  
Rachel lightly touched her knee, "Quinn. I don't want you to get stressed out about this. This pep rally is suppose to be fun get together of us old Glee members. You have to trust me."  
Quinn sighed, "I know."  
"Can you do that for me?" Rachel asked, still her hand lightly grasping her knee.  
Quinn looked like she was about to cry, "Rachel," she whispered as she wiped a tear from her eye, "I'm sorry." She laughed through her tears, "I shouldn't be crying."  
Rachel was concerned, "What is it?"  
"It's nothing, nevermind."  
"No," Rachel grabbed her hands, "Please tell me."  
"It's hard for me to trust anybody. I want to trust you really, really badly. I do, but it's hard," Another tear fell from her face, "I don't even know what we are."  
"Does that bother you?" Rachel asked, worried that she was the reason for the crying.  
"No," Quinn said, trying to fight back more tears.  
Rachel was satisfied with this answer, "What do you want?"  
"I want to trust you," Quinn said simply.  
"What's going that the easiest for you?" Rachel asked.  
"I..." Quinn tried to think, "I want to be with you, but then again. Trust. I'm sorry," she was drowned out by tears.  
"Shh," Rachel said and pulled Quinn close to her. Quinn didn't object and let her head fall onto Rachel's chest. "I understand you've been hurt before. And I really do not want to hurt you. And I'd like to think I have an okay reputation when it comes to that. Given, I haven't had much experience," Rachel thought back to the few relationships she's ever had, "But I'd like to think that I'm a decent human being who won't hurt you."  
"You would never do it personally," Quinn lifted her head up, "You're not the monster. You would never hurt anybody intentionally. But me, where do I begin?" She was crying harder now, "I made an effort every day to mess up your life. I treated you like shit, and why? Because I'm the monster, Rachel. One day, you might realize that you deserve so much better."  
"Quinn Fabray, " Rachel started, "You are anything but a monster. I'm not one to believe that people can't change. I've told you before, I knew from the start all the great potential you had. If I wasn't in this, Quinn, you would know by now. I don't like hurting people."  
Quinn looked up at Rachel, "I know."  
Rachel squeezed Quinn, "So please believe me when I say that Finn and I are done, and that I want this to turn into something. Preferably not so soon though. It's nothing against you, but this is just something I can't take too fast. I want to do this right."  
Quinn nodded, "Okay." The two sat there for a while, just enjoying the presence of one another. Rachel let Quinn get calmed down before she proposed they get back to working on the song. Quinn laughed at Rachel's dedication to making the song perfect.  
The blonde and brunette stayed up late, making sure it was perfect, knowing that this was probably the last time they'd have time to work on it till next week. Finally, Rachel started to feel sleepy, and her laugh showed it. So they snuggled into bed and fell asleep.

The next morning Quinn left around noon. Rachel insisted she stayed, but Quinn knew she had to get back to Yale, but assured her they'd see each other in Lima next weekend. But before she left, Rachel gave Quinn a hug and a quick peck on the lips. Kurt was sitting at the kitchen table and smirked at the entire event.  
"Well, well, well," Kurt said once Quinn closed the door, "Looks like somebody has embraced her inner lesbian this weekend." He took a sip of coffee and peered over the rim of the mug.  
"Shush," Rachel instructed.  
"One more question," Kurt stated.  
"No!" Rachel said.  
"C'mon!" Kurt whined, "You've barely talked to me about this at all."  
Rachel sighed and crossed her arms over her chest, "Fine. Only one though."  
"Would you still ever sleep with a guy?" he asked.  
"Too complex of a question," Rachel told him and started to walk away.  
"Hey! Don't you walk away from me, Miss Rachel Berry. I deserve an explanation!" Kurt yelled as she walked away.  
Rachel stopped and walked over to the table, took a deep breathe, then proceeded to answer, "I think I would still sleep with a guy. I never had a problem sleeping with guys."  
"But you don't have a problem sleeping with Quinn, either?" Kurt teased.  
"I haven't slept with Quinn!" Rachel defended. Kurt raised his eyebrow. "We haven't!" She insisted.  
"Sure, sure. Whatever you say, princess," he took another sip of coffee and peered those knowing eyes at her.  
"I would like to inform you that the furthest Quinn and I have gone was a kiss and some late night cuddling," she huffed and pulled the chair out, getting ready to walk away.  
"Don't diva storm out on me. You owe me more details," Kurt told her.  
"I said one question!"  
Kurt raised his eyebrows, "You really think one question makes up for the past week you haven't been discussing anything with me?"  
"You've been busy," Rachel tried to explain.  
"That's never stopped you before," he said knowingly, "Why won't you talk to me?" He said more seriously.  
Rachel thought about how to answer the question, "You're gay."  
Kurt's eyes shot open, "Wow, I'm glad you've finally come to terms with that."  
"No, no!" Rachel tried to take it back, "That's not it. It's that I have the utmost respect for you, and I don't," Rachel bit her lip, "I don't want to be a bad gay."  
Kurt had to suppress his laugh, "Excuse me, did you just say that you didn't want to be a bad gay?"  
"Well, if you're just going to laugh."  
"No, no," Kurt stopped Rachel, "But, Rachel, do you think there are bad straight people?"  
"Well, no..."  
"So why do you think you would be a bad gay, as you say?" Kurt asked.  
"I've never done it before!"  
"You think the first time a third grader sends a note to a boy, that that information was just imprinted on her brain from the womb?" Kurt pressed.  
"Of course not!"  
"Then, why do you possibly think you could achieve to be a bad gay? You would literally have to try to that. Rachel, you just have to be natural. Do what feels right to you." Rachel still didn't look convinced, so Kurt reached over the table to grab her wrist, "Just be the brilliant, bright, and shining you."  
Rachel smiled, "Thanks, Kurt."  
"Now," Kurt took his hand back, "Tell me about it." He sipped his coffee as Rachel proceeded to tell him all her wonderful feelings about Quinn. How everything about her just felt right. She even went into mushy details about how her heart flutters every time she sees her and how her world is brighter with her. You know, the dramatics of Rachel Berry.  
"So why aren't you dating yet?" Kurt asked after he heard it all.  
Rachel shrugged, "I'm afraid."  
"Of what?"  
"Rejection," Rachel answered simply.  
"Rachel Barbra Berry, really? I think it's been obvious to everybody that Quinn has had a massive lady boner for you."  
"You knew too?" Rachel asked, shocked. She was beginning to think she was the only one that didn't know.  
"I suspected it."  
"Oh."  
Kurt waited for her to say more, but when she didn't, he decided she needed more convincing, "Quinn coming out to you was a huge commitment to you, and I don't think you realize that. Truthfully, I don't think Quinn ever wanted to accept that she likes girls, but you made her go against that. Telling you was something that she could never take back. Because in all honestly, if she turned on you, you have every right to be a bitch back and spread the news. Quinn's not stupid, she knew that. Quinn really fell for you and that's her way of telling you."  
It was all very hard for Rachel to believe still, but when Kurt put it that way it did make sense, "You always know what to say."  
Kurt fake flipped his hair, "I try."

***  
It was Monday afternoon and Kurt, Santana, and Rachel were all on the living room expecting a Skype call from the Glee club for the practice. Rachel kept in touch through phone with Quinn to make sure she was ready. Finally, the computer started to ring.  
"Hi!" The entire Glee club, plus Puck, who must have been asked to be in the number too, said when they answered. They were all in the familiar room, staring at the camera smiling. The New York crew waved back.  
Quinn simply said, "Okay. Hurry this up. My roommate will be back soon." So the crew went straight to work with the song.  
It would be wrong to say that the rehearsal went smoothly. Santana started yelling in Spanish when Finn couldn't move his feet fast enough and Jake wasn't taking it seriously. Rachel threatened to diva storm out to her room when they tried to make her do some stupid dance move that would just look stupid. Kurt was oogling at Blaine the entire time because he was wearing his favorite pair of blue skinny jeans with a very complimenting striped cardigan. And Quinn just kept complaining about how stupid this was, and Santana, again, would yell in Spanish.  
But finally, the number was through and the only thing more they could do was practice on their own time and hope it came together Friday at the pep rally. Before they hung up, Mr. Schu touched bases with Rachel.  
"You and Quinn are still on for the duet?"  
"Yes!" Rachel said excitedly.  
"Great, we all can't wait. We'll see you on Friday, okay?"  
"Yep! See you then!" Everybody said good-bye and the call was hung up. Rachel turned to Santana.  
"How's you and Brittany coming along?"  
Santana hesitated to answer, "I'm not singing with Brittany."  
"Why not!?" Rachel asked, this was the first she had ever heard about this.  
"Because I don't want to," Santana said.  
"That's insane! You love to sing with Brittany," Rachel was very confused, Kurt tried to stay out.  
"Rachel, I'm going to try really hard not to yell because I'm trying this new anger management thing. But keep in mind, I would be yelling right now," Santana took a deep breathe, "It wouldn't be good for Britt and I to sing together. As much as I love her, it would only hurt me and her more. And I'm sorry, but I have to put my own mental health before Glee."  
Rachel wanted to argue, but the fact that Santana took the time to have a civil argument stopped her, "Okay. I understand, Santana."  
Kurt smirked, "I'm so glad we're not in high school anymore. Last year, if she told you that, you would have freaked out on her because you were a total control freak. I'm glad you've mellowed out this year."  
"That, or she doesn't care about a club she's not in anymore," Santana let out.  
"Shut up!" Rachel told them both, jokingly, "I think everybody should be entitled to their own opinion and do what they want to do."  
"That's a new one," Kurt snorted and Rachel playfully hit him.  
"Can we go get something to eat? I'm starving," Santana complained.  
"Sure," Kurt said as he got up, "By the way, Santana, how's Rachel doing as a gay? On a scale from 1 to 10, how convincing is she?" Kurt joked and flashed a smile at Rachel. She was glad to have such a fun best friend that could joke around with her. It honestly made everything so much easier. So they went to eat as Santana explained the complexities of being a lesbian, but assured Rachel she could handle it.


	8. Chapter 8

_I know I kind of abandonned this for a long time, and I feel super bad about it because I didn't realize that there were people actually interested in it. This is just kind of a chapter to get things kicked off again, and I will hopefully be able to wrap this up soon. This is just a chapter to let you know I'm still alive. Thanks for the follows, reviews, and favorites that make my heart flutter. _

**Chapter 8**

Quinn decided to come to New York on Wednesday and stay over till Friday, then travel with the New York crew back to Lima. Rachel insisted that she was wasting a bunch of gas, but Quinn countered with saying their duet needed to be perfect. And in that case, Rachel couldn't argue much.

"Quinn, it was pointless for you to come here if you're only plan was to seduce me," Rachel said between kisses from Quinn. Quinn only smirked and went right back to her lips.

"You know kissing can damage your singing ability," Rachel said.

Quinn pulled away, "You're full of crap."

"No! I'm serious!" Rachel insisted, "Your lips get all chapped. Everybody knows you can't sing as well with chapped lips."

"I think you'll survive. You kissed Huckleberry Finn plenty of times before singing," Quinn said.

Rachel rolled her eyes, "But really, did you only come to work on the song?"

"Of course!" Rachel raised her eyebrow and Quinn mumbled, "I might have missed you a little bit too."

"What was that?" Rachel asked playfully.

"You heard me," Quinn said. Rachel smiled, she liked being missed.

"I'm flattered, but we really need to work on this," Rachel said.

"Fine, fine," Quinn grumbled as she pulled off Rachel and waited for her to play the song.

The girls worked on the song for a solid hour, before Rachel couldn't take the oogling eyes Quinn kept giving her when they sung together, or at the end each time they would end the song and Quinn would kiss her.

"Glee practice is over," Rachel said with a smirk after the final time and pounced on top of Quinn and her lips met Quinn's. They stayed in that position for awhile before the door opened.

"Woah," it was Santana, "Hola chicas. Didn't mean to be a cock block." She turned around to leave, but Quinn jumped up.

"Santana!"

"What? I just got home from work and saw your car here. And I heard your sloppy kissy noises, and I thought back to all the times you'd lady cock block Brittney and I," Santana smirked, "Paybacks a bitch."

Rachel was now off the bed, "It's okay. We weren't doing anything."

Santana raised her eyebrow, "Really? Quinn's hand heading North up your shirt?" It was true. Rachel did feel Quinn's hand getting dangerously close to private property, and was slightly sad that Santana had ruined the moment.

"Right, no answer," Santana laughed and went to sit down on the bed, a clue that she was not leaving anytime soon, and the make-out session would have to be over for now, "Anyway, I'm bored bitches. Entertain me." Quinn and Rachel looked at each other, both slightly disappointed their fun had been cut short. "Oh," Santana said, obviously knowing why they gave each other such a disgruntled looked, "Don't let me interrupt your fun. I don't mind watching, or if you want to get really crazy, I can join in." She winked.

"Santana!" Rachel squealed, embarrassed that Santana would bring up such a personal topic.

"What? I would love to see how Quinn has improved since last time. I need to make sure I was satisfying instructor."

Rachel sighed, and Quinn stepped in, "Santana!"

Santana laughed, "I was only joking," she rolled her eyes, "But seriously, let's do something tonight. I have a bottle of wine or two in my closet, let's have some girl time or some shit like that."

Quinn waited for Rachel to respond, when she was with Rachel, she didn't care what they did.

"Well, I suppose it would be okay to have a little fun…" She said, "Can we watch an old 80's movie? Like.." Santana cut her off.

"I swear to god, chica, if you say Grease…"

"No, Santana, my world does not revolve around cheesy musicals all the time. I was going to say The Breakfast Club."

Santana shrugged, "Whatever. It'll be something to do." Rachel smiled, and they left to go to the living space.

Later that evening, the three girls found themselves having silly, giggly girl talk about nothing when Kurt walked in.

"Kurt!" Rachel said happily when she saw him walk in the door.

"Hello ladies," he said walking towards them, "What are you doing tonight?" He asked glancing at the empty bottle of wine and the nearly full one beside it.

"Shhh," Rachel giggled, "It's a girl night!"

Santana laughed at Rachel, "You know better than anybody Kurt's basically a girl. We're going to watch another dumb movie at Rachel's request. Get ready, Hummel."

Quinn giggled, "Somebody's had a little bit of wine."

"What? I can be nice!" Santana slurred. Rachel and Quinn burst out laughing. "Stop laughing! I am nice!" She said a little more forcibly.

"Oh, here comes the Santana we all know," Rachel giggled. They both started laughing again.

Kurt was there, just observing the entire conversation before he said, "That's it. I have to get on your level," and left to change in his room.

Even later in the night, after the second movie was done, everybody was laughing a bit too hard, and maybe not making all that much sober sense. Everybody started getting sleepy, and Quinn followed Santana into her room for a pair of shorts she had left in her room a while ago.

"It feels like ages since I've been here," Quinn said, sitting down on Santana's bed to make the world a little bit less dizzy.

Santana's back was towards Quinn as she dug around her closet for the lost shorts, "Yeah. Every since you started dating Berry, you never come and see me, bitch."

"Santana!" Quinn said defensively, "You know it's not like that!"

"Relax, I was joking," Santana said as she turned around, "Just don't forget about me, though," she said a little softer.

"You really think I could forget about my best friend?" Quinn asked.

"Love does crazy things to people," Santana shrugged, now just holding the shorts in her hand.

"Are you seriously worried that we're not going to be best friends anymore?" Quinn said, turning around to Santana, seeing clues in her face that showed a bit of defeat. Which was a really hard emotion to get Santana to show, but Quinn being friends with her for awhile now, she could always see when her best friend was worried.

Santana just kind of nodded.

"Santana," Quinn said, seriously, "You're always going to be my best friend. You're always going to be that one girl that got me through high school. You're always going to be that best friend that gets me way too drunk and vulnerable. You're always going to be the one that showed me who I really am," Quinn took a deep breathe, "If I ever forgot you, I think I'd forget who I am."

Santana smirked, "Too drunk and vulnerable, huh?" She threw the shorts at Quinn, who made a very good attempt to catch them, but in her drunken state, it seemed nearly impossible. They both laughed about this for a good five minutes. "You know," Santana said, "It's good to have a best friend you aren't hopelessly in love with, and want to forget." Quinn smiled at Santana and then departed to Rachel's room next door, which Santana insisted she do. No drunk girl likes to sleep alone.

Thursday came with good vibes that were felt around the apartment. Rachel woke up before everybody else and cooked a hearty breakfast. Kurt came out of his room, more freshened up then she had saw him in weeks. Santana wasn't as bitchy in the morning, like she usually is and Quinn actually talked to people before she had her first sip of coffee.

Nobody wanted to waste time, so everybody left promptly at 10 a.m. to get back to Lima at a decent hour. Quinn was the only one with a car in the city, so that meant a 9 hour and 9 minute car ride full of different personalities.

**1st Hour**

"Are you feeling today, Quinn?" Kurt asked, in the back seat next to Santana about an hour into the car ride.

"Perfectly fine, why?" Quinn asked, confused why Kurt had a suddenly cared how she was at this moment.

"Just wondering. Where's your phone?" he asked.

"In my purse.." Quinn said, unsure where this was going.

"No important text messages coming?" Kurt asked further.

"What the hell? No!" Quinn said, slightly annoyed.

"I just would prefer not to get into an accident, that's all!" Kurt said innocently, but before he could barely finish, he was smacked by Santana in the chest.

**2nd Hour**

"X in exit!" Rachel shouted proudly.

"Rachel!" Santana yelled, "You're the only one playing this stupid game!"

**3rd Hour**

"Quinn," Santana said, as they talked about old high school memories, "Remember that time we were on the stairs in Freshmen year and the head bitch in charge of cheerleading, made us whip our slushies over the railing and if we hit somebody with it, we would get to stand in the second row?"

Quinn started laughing, "Yeah, I still remember that freshmen girl's yelp."

"Excuse you," Rachel said, "That girl was me." Kurt burst out laughing, which was unexpected. "Kurt!" Rachel whipped her head back at him, "It's not funny! I was wearing a brand new outfit!"

"I'm sorry, but it's just so funny. I guess Quinn was always meant to slushie you." Quinn and Santana tried not to laugh, but they couldn't help it. Rachel turned her head and looked out the window, although she wasn't all that mad. Just mad nobody was on her side.

**4th Hour**

"How much more broadway musical songs can there be?" Santana asked.

Rachel stopped singing the current one, "Santana, you should know that broadway as a very long history…" Santana tried to tone the rest of the history lesson out.

**5th Hour**

"Better yet," Santana said even more annoyed, "How many of these songs can you possibly know?"

**6th Hour**

"Can somebody please politely get Kurt to stop making that horrible noise?" Rachel asked.

She heard a smack from the back, "How the hell does Blaine deal with that snoring problem?" Santana asked, and Kurt grumpily huffed and went back to sleep.

**7th Hour**

"Rachel," Rachel felt her arm being nudged, "Don't fall asleep." It was Quinn nudging her.

Rachel rubbed her sleepy eyes, "Where are we?"

"We're almost there. But I'm bored and everybody is asleep." Rachel still couldn't get over the rush she felt when Quinn admitted that Rachel was the one she wanted.

"Want to play the alphabet game?" Rachel asked, with some hope.

Quinn slightly smiled, "Sure."

**8th Hour**

After the alphabet game, Rachel fell back asleep, but Quinn didn't mind now, because Kurt was up.

He was mindlessly looking at the back seat window, "You're not going to hurt her, are you?"

"No, of course not. I would never." Quinn said, caught a bit off guard by the topic.

"No, don't say never," Kurt instructed, "Never is a long time, and you can't predict if you're going to hurt somebody. I never wanted to hurt a lot of people, but that doesn't mean I haven't."

"I think that's an unfair question, then," Quinn said.

"What I meant was, you're not doubting this, right? Because if you are, back out now. Rachel's different. She gets her hopes up and doesn't let doubt slip into her mind. Which a lot of us should be jealous of. But that means if you're not fully in this, back out now. Because if you're not, you might just leave her broken. And I don't even know if you care, but.."

He was cut off by Quinn, "Give me more credit, Hummel. I know I've been a bitch before, but I don't want to be that person ever again. And Rachel is making sure of that. I know she's your best friend, but you have to trust me that I really do like her." She said the last part with certainty, that Kurt wasn't expecting.

"I do trust you," Kurt said, feeling bad he accused Quinn now, "I guess I'm just mad at myself for not being there for her when you guys were being awful to her. I guess it's too late to help now."

Quinn laughed, "Are you saying you would have banished me from the apartment in the beginning? I don't think that would have went over well in the end either."

"No, but I could have yanked the gay out of you," Kurt smiled.

"Please," Quinn smirked, "Like you knew."

Kurt raised his eyebrow, "You highly underestimate the gaydar, sweety. I knew you had oogly eyes for Rachel since Glee club."

"No you didn't," Quinn rolled her eyes.

"I watch people," Kurt explained, "I watched the way you couldn't take your eyes off her everytime she sung a song. I watched you try to convince yourself that you thought she was annoying anytime she spoke. Which is kind of easy, but she is sort of annoying sometimes," Kurt mumbled. "But I knew you wanted to at least be her friend. You two get each other. You put her high head on level ground, and she makes you feel more than just a pretty blonde. That's the kind of chemistry people write about. And when you see it, it makes you fall in love with the relationship too."

Quinn squinted, a bit confused, "Are you saying you hoped Rachel and I would get together from the beginning?"

"No," Kurt said, "But I knew if you did, it would be one to last."

Quinn nodded, "One more question,"

"Yes?" Kurt answered.

"If you knew we were perfect from the beginning why are you questioning my intentions?"

"I wanted to make sure you realized it," Kurt answered.

"Hey soap opera dream team," Santana mumbled, "keep the dramatics down." Kurt huffed, but Quinn just smiled, secretly hoping she was awake to hear her heart to heart with Kurt.

**9th Hour**

"15 bottles of beer on the wall, 15 bottles of beer, take one down, pass it around...14 bottles of beer on the wall!" Rachel sung happily.

Before she could begin the endless loop again, Kurt cut in, "I think that's enough beer for anybody."

"I'm just trying to stay entertained. Didn't you guys ever play fun car games?" Rachel asked. Everybody shook their heads. "Well then, some of you were never exposed to fun."

"I hope the door is unlocked," Santana said.

"You know, Santana. Even though you moved away, you should always keep a spare key," Rachel pulled her badazzled key out of her purse. "But if it is, we can have a sleepover at my house!"

"Don't you think we have enough sleep overs?" Santana asked.

"Fine. Plus, it's a school night," Rachel said, like she was smarter than the rest.

"If we didn't graduate, yeah," Kurt said sarcastically.

"No! I was thinking, we should all go to school tomorrow!" Rachel said.

"What would we do all day?" Quinn asked, doubting this plan.

"We could work on the group number with William," Rachel nodded.

"We'll see diva," Santana said.

They were almost home now, and Kurt asked to be dropped off at Blaine's. Santana was dropped off at her house, and now they were on their way to the Berry residence to drop off Rachel.

"Are you staying at home?" Rachel asked.

"Unfortunately," Quinn said.

"Well, you're welcome to have a sleepover at my house!" Rachel said.

"You're really pushing that sleepover, aren't you?" Quinn smiled, thinking Rachel was kind of cute.

"I just thought it'd be fun," Rachel said.

"I would, but I promised my mom I'd come home to see her. As much as I don't like being home, I should probably see the person that gave birth to me. But I'll pick you up tomorrow to go to the high school!"

"Early?" Rachel asked excitedly.

Quinn laughed, "Sure, why not." Rachel smiled, she was excited to enter the high school again.

"Be here, 7 am, sharp," Rachel said, remembering the time Finn would always come to pick her up and lay on the horn when she was not yet ready. With that, they reached the house. Rachel gave Quinn a quick peck on the lips, like it was completely normal and went inside her house.

Quinn drove away with a huge smile on her face.


End file.
